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THE SOUTH VINDICATED 



TREASON AND FANATICISM 



NORTHERN ABOLITIONISTS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED BY H. MANLY. 

1836. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The following work, having been undertaken 
solely with the view of vindicating the South from 
the calumnies of the abolitionists, and of directing 
public attention to the origin and nature of Domes- 
tic Slavery, and to the facts connected with the 
question of Emancipation — it was considered ad- 
visable to present it to the public as early as possi- 
ble. The very brief period allowed the author in 
preparing the volume for the press, necessarily 
precluded much attention to grace of style, or 
propriety of arrangement. He has sought to pre- 
sent the prominent features of this important subject 
to the attention of the public, in a plain, distinct, and 
intelligible manner. If he has succeeded — if he 
has aided, even in the slightest degree, in unmask- 
ing the evils and dangers of Emancipation, as now 
urged by the fanatics of the North — the writer has 
attained his sole object — and is content. 



CONTENTS. 



In'trodlxtion - - - - - - . 13 

CHAPTER I. 

Origin of Slavery — Slavery among- the Ancients — either 
voluntary or involuntary — Involuntary Slavery — from War — 
Piracy — Crime — Bargain and Sale . _ . 19 

CHAPTER II. 

Slavery among the Ancients continued — Voluntary Slavery 
— Roman Mercenarii — Grecian Prodigals — German Enthu- 
siasts — Condition of Slaves — Power and Inhumanity of Mas- 
ters 27 

CHAPTER III. 

Slave-trade — Origin — Progress — Mode of collecting Slaves 
— African co-operation — Transportation of Slaves — Extent of 
Trade — Abolition 32 

CHAPTER IV. 

Origin of Slavery in this country — Common to all the Colo- 
nies — Cause of present exemption of northern states from 
a slave population — Progress of importation of slaves into 
the Colonies — Great numerical superiority of Slaves in the 
South — Comparative progress of Population — Insurrection of 
Slaves — Abolition of the slave-trade by states— .-Constitutional 
provisions on the subject — Abolition of slave-trade by Con- 
gress — Course of the South in relation to the sJave-trade 40 
1^ 



CHAPTER V. 

America not responsible for the Introduction of slavery into 
this country — Course of Great Britain — Slavery in England 
— White captives exported by the English to the Colonies — 
African slavery introduced into this country by England — 
Trade sanctioned and enforced by government — Aversion of 
the Colonies — Ineffectual remonstrances and resistance — In- 
structions to colonial governors — British slave-trade one of 
the causes of American rebellion - - - - 47 

CHAPTER VI. 

English slave-trade — Extent — Cruelty — Motives of abolition 
— selfish and hypocritical — Violation of the law abolishing 
the trade — West India emancipation - - - 57 

CHAPTER VII. 

Slavery in this country — Extent — Productiveness — North- 
ern labourers and Southern slaves — Education of Negroes — 
Religion — Slaves protected by law — Treatment of Slaves — 
Testimony of different writers - - . - 66 

CHAPTER VHI. 

Slavery considered — The right of man to hold his fellow 
man in bondage — Exposition of the phrase "all men created 
free and equal" — Blackstone, and Professor Dew in reply — 
Admitted by writers on national law — Justifiable in this coun- 
try from peculiar circumstances under which it exists, and the 
impracticability of emancipation — The debtor in the North a 
slave — Laws of every country justify a certain state of do- 
mestic bondage 80 

CHAPTER IX. 

Slavery Considered in continuation — Sanctioned by the Old 
and New Testaments, and accordant with the precepts and 
spirit of Christianity 83 



Vll 

CHAPTER X. 

Slavery considered in continuation — Influence of slavery — 
on civilization — on the female sex — on morality — on the po- 
litical character and destinies of a country — on our country — • 
Insincerity of abolitionists — Influence on the character of the 
citizens of the South — Testimony of Burke — Influence on 
the character of the people of Greece and Rome — Induces 
political independence and intelligence — Consequences of the 
peculiar complexion of the slave— Necessity of Negroes for 
the cultivation of the South — Free and slave labour — Pros- 
perity and prospects of the South - - - . lOO 

CHAPTER XL 

Schemes for the removal of slavery — Colonization and 
abolition — History of Colonization — Description of the set- 
tlement — Extract from the speech of Mr. Clay in its sup- 
port — Views of its friends — Objections — Extract from Pro- 
fessor Dew in opposition to colonization — Observations on 
the scheme 123 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Abolition of slavery in the United States — Objects and 
designs of Abolitionists — Emancipation — universal — imme- 
diate — unconditional — without compensation to the master — 
Elevation of the slave to political equality with the whites — 
right of bearing arms — of voting — of holding office — Amal- 
gamation - - -infQ 

CHAPTER Xni. 

Character of leading abolitionists — Garrison — Tappan — 
Thompson the British agent, &c. — General character of the 
faction 157 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Policy of Abolitionists — Agitation in the North — in the 
South — with the slave-holders — with the slaves — Fanaticism 
— Female influence — Organization of the party — Agents — 



Vlll 

Publications— Political influence — Revolution — Disunion — 
Insurrection • 1*72 

CHAPTER XV. 

Resources and power of the Abolitionists — Number of So- 
cieties— Amount of Collections — Number and nature of pub- 
lications, &c. 189 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Consequences of the course of the abolitionists — War upon 
the slave-holder— Emancipation retarded or rendered impos- 
sible — Bondage of the blacks made more severe — Address 
of the coloured people of Baltimore, &c. - - 199 

CHAPTER XVH. 

Rights of the South — Nature of those rights — Intangible 
to Northern interference — Recognised by the North — Oblig-a- 
tion to respect them — North not accountable for Southern 
slavery — Treason of abolitionists — Laws of the South against 
incendiarism — Abolitionists violate those laws — Right of the 
South to demand the offenders for punishment — Duty of the 
northern states to sappress incendiarism - - 208 

CHAPTER XVm. 

The abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia — 
Congress has no jurisdiction over the subject — Consequences 
of making Congress an abolition engine — Emancipation a vir- 
tual infraction of the compact between the General Govern- 
ment and Virginia and Maryland — A violation of the rights 
of the citizens of the District — Consequences of abolishing 
slavery in the District of Colum'-ia . _ . Qig 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Impossibility of effecting- emancipation, even under the 
sanction of the slave-holders, without collision and war be- 
tween the whites and blacks. Blacks would, when free, 
claim political equality^-Consequences if denied — ^Conse- 



IX 

quences if granted — Impossibility of social amalgamation — 
Numerous subjects of quarrel — Free blacks of the North — 
Their character and condition — Unable to attain social or 
political equality — Anecdote — Character and capabilities of 
the negro race — Equality only attained by sexual amalgama- 
tion — Impracticable — Consequences if otherwise - 226 

CHAPTER XX. 

Consequences of abolition, even if effected with the con- 
sent of slave-holders^ To the North — Negro emigration 
to the North — Depreciation of labour — Distress of white 
labouring population — Black Lazaroni — Political move- 
ments of blacks in the North — Destructive influence of 
emancipation on Commerce and Manufactures of the North 
— Consequences to the South — Loss of negro labour and im- 
poverishment of the country — Negro indolence, &c. — Vio- 
lence and insurrection — Picture of the ravages of the eman- 
cipated slave — Philanthropy of Abolitionists — Consequences 
of emancipation to slaves — Improvidence, poverty, vice and 
wretchedness — Instances — Results of collision with the 
whites 237 

CHAPTER XXr. 

St. Domingo before the revolution — Insurrection originated 
in the policy of France — Amis des Noirs — Agitation of the 
colony by the French — Domestic dissentions — Oge — Insur- 
rection — French commissioners proclaim abolition of slavery 
— Massacres — Cruelty of the revolted slaves — Touissant — 
Le Clerc lands — Evacuates the island — Dessalines — Massa- 
cres — Christophe — Petion — Boyer — Present state of Hayti, 
Government — Population — Character of inhabitants — Agri- 
culture — Commerce— Free labour— Finances— Army, &c. 254 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Consequences of agitating abolition in opposition to the 
wishes,and in violation of the rights, of the South — Individual 
agitation — Party and popular excitement — Danger of servile 



insurrection — The Union endangered — Disunion can only 
be produced by the course of the North — Consequences — To 
the North — Confederacy dissolved never re-united — Destruc- 
tion of manufactures and commerce of the North — Collision 
between the North and South— National glory — Motives of 
abolitionists - - -' 276 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

British agency in urging abolition — Motives, &c. — Reli- 
gious interference — Extent — Nature — Consequences of cleri- 
cal influence in the agitation of this question - - 288 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Ability of the South to hold its slaves — Anxiety of Abo- 
litionists unnecessary — Croakers — Posterity— Comparative 
increase of whites and blacks — Increase unattended by dan- 
ger — Impossibility of successful insurrrection — Moral supe- 
riority of whites — Superior intelligence and skill — Organiza- 
tion — Resources — Slaves contented, and averse to insurrection 
— Incendiarism suppressed by the South - - - 295 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Course of the South vindicated — Her indignant resistance 
of incendiaiy agitation — Her punishment of those found ex- 
citing her slaves to insurrection— Duty of Congress — Post 
Office, &c. — Duty of non-slave-holding states— Freedom of 
the press, &c — Conclusion - - - . . 307 



ERRATUM. 

The Note on page 79 should have been subjoined to the 
commencement of Chapter VIII., on the subsequent page. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The framers of our o;overnment, when confronted 
in their labours by the question of slavery, prudent- 
ly turned aside from a topic, which menaced their 
councils with division, and the embryo constitution 
with death. They left the unquestioned sovereignty 
of the Southern States over all connected with this 
most important branch of their domestic relations, 
untouched. The controversy was buried, as they 
hoped, for ever; and they departed from the scene 
of their labours, in the happy confidence that our 
country did not contain one man so lost to reason 
and patriotism, as madly to violate the grave in 
which they saw this exciting question quietly inurn- 
ed, and drag it forth to madden and distract the 
land. 

The result has proven that their confidence was 
ill-founded. Ever}^ land comprises men prepared, 
by nature, for treasons, stratagems, and spoils — men 
w^ho rejoice to tear open and irritate the wounds of 
their country, and who seek, with sedulous diligence, 
for those weak and unguarded spots in the body 
politic, where it may be struck w^ith the most fatal 
effect. Of their individual character, it is unneces- 
2 



XIV 

sary here to speak. Treason finds disciples of every 
description and variety. Heated fanaticism and 
reckless villany, hypocritical guile and honCvSt stu- 
pidity, often combine to forward the most nefarious 
plots. Our own country is not without such men. 
The sun warms the reptile into life; and freedom 
often animates into existence beings whose life is a 
reproach and a calamity to her. There are men 
who take an unnatural pleasure in the afflictions of 
their country, and' who live only to foment disturb- 
ance. Their nature and enjoyments are like those 
of the sailors' bird of evil omen, which flutters with 
delight in the breath of the tempest, looks down 
upon the foundering wreck, and screams, with ex- 
ultation, in answer to the shrieks of the wTctches 
who perish in the waves. There are others, who, 
from a leaden vanity, thrust themselves into matters 
for which their capacities are not suited. They ex- 
pend time and money in forwarding the designs of 
their crafty leaders, and are well satisfied with the 
sacrifice. These men mistake notoriety for fame; 
their hearts flutter with pleasure when their names 
are consigned to the contempt of the public, through 
the medium of the newspapers; and they hear the 
hiss of outraged propriety w^ith the complacent 
smirk of gratified pride. There is another class — 
fanatics — who mistake the promptings of their over- 
heated fancy — the vapours that rise from the molten 
lead of their own seething brains — for the dictates 
of inspiration. They are a troublesome race, to 
whom the tranquillizing chair or strait jacket is the 



XV 



only effective argument. Still, they should be re- 
garded rather with compassion than anger, as they 
make themselves fools from conscientious mo- 
tives. A fourth class remains to be mentioned, en- 
titled only to our contempt and abhorrence. They 
affect an enthusiasm which they do not feel. Hypo- 
crisy is their professional pursuit. They live upon 
cant — cant themselves into influence, luxury, and 
power; and use their sway over the weak and credu- 
lous, to forward schen:ics of ambition, aggrandize- 
ment, or malevolence. These men [and there are 
such men) are capable of any act, however atro- 
cious; they would dip their hands in human gore, 
and then, with their crimson fingers, turn over the 
leaves of the Bible to find a sanction for the deed. 

We have fallen upon evil times. Men have been 
found who do not scruple to tear off the seals which 
our fathers set upon the question of slavery. They 
have broken open, with reckless hands, this maga- 
zine, filled with all that can excite and endanger; 
and are lighting the torch to apply to its materials 
of fury and desolation. The consequences are such 
as might have been anticipated. Distrust and fear, 
indignation and violence, are abroad in our land. 
Every fibre of our country is quivering with excite- 
ment. How could it be otherwise ? Our people can- 
not be expected to stand by, with complacent tran- 
quillity, while mad hands are digging under the 
foundation stone of our government. They cannot 
be asked to witness, unmoved, the violation of one 
of the first of the sacred and unalienated rights of 



XVI 



the States— a right achieved by the right arm of our 
fathers, and hallowed in the baptism of blood— a 
right which existed before our government was call- 
ed into being, and to which our National Constitu- 
tion bows in deference. They cannot be desired to 
gaze on, without alarm or anger, while treason and 
fanaticism place the brand and the torch in the hands 
of the savage negro, and, pointing to the whites, bid 
him rise and destroy. These things must produce 
excitement. They must alarum the fears — they 
must awaken the resentment of the people. 

"The flesh will quiver when the pincers tear — 
The blood will follow where the knife is driven." 

To be indifferent is impossible; and if possible, would 
be weak and unwise. The people that submit to 
such wrong will submit to any thing. The freeman 
who can, without alarm, witness the development 
of the abolition conspiracy , would scarcely be 
roused by the " crack of doom." The true patriot, 
instead of lulling the people into dangerous lethargy, 
instead of encouraging a slumbrous indifference — 
will pray heaven to — 

" Fool them not so much 
To bear it tamely ; touch them with noble anger." 

The crisis is one which calls for the aroused and 
excited energies of the nation. It is in vain that we 
are told that the abolitionists are few and feeble — 
that they are regarded with contempt, and meet daily 
with the emphatic expression of popular abhorrence. 



Circumstances give them power. When the train 
is laid a child may fire it. Such is our situation; and 
the people are called upon, by all that is dear or 
sacred to them, to interpose, arrest the brand of the 
incendiary, and save the country from the calamities 
which menace it. 

The people must be m-ade acquainted with this 
subject — they must be apprized of the rights of the 
South, and informed of the hollowness and falsehood 
of the appeals which are daily made to them by the 
abolitionists. We do not, at the North, claim a right 
so to discuss this subject as to disturb or agitate the 
South; but when reckless men have sent forth, for 
the worst purposes, hosts of falsehoods, it is our 
right and duty to step aside and crush the misbegot- 
ten and dangerous brood. This, and this alone, is 
our aim. 

The incendiaries appeal only to the passions; and 
endeavour, by falsehood and misrepresentation, to 
mislead and excite the unthinking. Their argu- 
ments consist altogether of specious but misty and 
unintelligible abstractions. They industriously en- 
deavour to enlist religious feelings in favour of their 
designs; and are constantly fulminating religious de- 
nunciations to move and appal the conscientious but 
weak. They address themselves peculiarly to women 
and children; and, by maudlin verses and lying pic- 
tures, essay not only to rouse the passions of the slave, 
but to excite the prejudices of the ignorant and un- 
reflecting of our citizens. 

Against these arts, the friends of the Constitution 
2-^ 



XVlll 



and the Union — the lovers of peace and order — with 
confidence oppose the force of reason and truth. Let 
the facts connected with this suhject be known to 
our people, and the frothy effusions of the abolition- 



ists will cease to be dangerous. 



SLAVERY AT THE SOUTH. 



CHAPTER I. 



Origin of Slavery — Slavery among the ancients, 
either Involuntary or Voluntary — Involuii- 
tary Slavery — -from War — Piracy — Crime — 
Bargain and Sale. 

There are few topics which have been subjected 
to so much vague abstraction and empty declamation 
as slavery. Various theories have been suggested in 
relation to its origin; but, separated from hypocriti- 
cal flourish and unmeaning cant, they amount at last 
to little else than an admission, that slavery origi- 
ginally sprung from the inequality of the race, and 
the necessities arising from that inequality. The 
sagacious and powerful subjected their inferiors to 
their control; and their inferiors, in return, were 
protected and fed. Nature and necessity created 
classes, which nothing but the refinements of educa- 
tion could remove. Mind subjected matter to its 
sway; the bold controlled the timid; the wise di- 
rected the weak; and while one class toiled, another 
counselled, fought and governed. This state of things 
is not, it must be admitted, accordant with our priu' 



•20 

ciples or feelings; Init it would be difficult to prove 
that it is at war with nature. 

«^ Slavery,'^ says Voltaire, "is as ancient as war; 
war, as human nature." As far back as history gives 
us a record of the race, we find proofs of the exist- 
ence of slavery. Immediately after the deluge, re- 
ference is made to it, (see Gen. ix. 25,) and from 
that period, throughout the whole range of Hebrew 
history, numberless evidences are given of its preva- 
lence. Slavery existed and was common before and 
during the siege of Troy. Homer frequently refers 
to it. " No legislator of antiquity," to quote again 
from Voltaire, ^^ attempted to abrogate slavery. So- 
ciety was so accustomed to this degradation of the 
species, that Epictetus, who was assuredly worth 
more than his master, never expresses any surprise 
at his being a slave." 

It is scarcely necessary to designate the nations of 
antiquity in which slavery prevailed. It was es- 
tablished in all. In those countries most celebrated 
for their liberality and refinement, the institution of 
slavery existed in its greatest extent. Egypt was 
crowded with a servile population. Hardy Sparta 
and liberal Athens owed much of their power to 
their numerous slaves. Carthage was also celebrated 
for the number of her bondmen; and her triumphant 
rival, Rome, won, in her countless conquests, mil- 
lions of slaves. Paulus Emilius brought one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand slaves to Rome; and Au- 
gustus sold thirty-six thousand of the Salassii into 
slavery. Indeed, throughaut the whole known world 
the institution of slavery appears to have prevailed. 
Sages and patriots, the wise and benevolent, joined 
in sustaining it; and the slaves themselves, while 
they suffered under a bondage not always the most 
lenient, regarded it as their destiny, and endured it 
without a murmur. 



21 

Slavery among the ancients was of two species, — - 
involuntary and voluntary. Involuntary slavery was 
that which resulted from war, from piracy or kid- 
napping, from crime, and from commerce. 

JNIost nations have considered their right over 
their captives taken in war as absolute. Barbarous 
conquerors, and those impelled only by a sanguinary 
thirst for vengeance, sacrificed the lives of the sub- 
dued. When a gentler spirit, or more just idea of 
war, prevailed, the victim was spared, and became 
the slave of the conqueror. The Romans called 
their slaves se7'vi, from servare, to save. The origin 
of the custom of sparing and enslaving captives, has 
been ascribed by some writers to Assyria, and by 
others to Lacedemon; but the probability is, that it 
prevailed long before it was practised by either of 
these nations. The improvement of agriculture, 
the organization of society, the increase of inhabit- 
ants, and the establishment of principles in relation 
to the right of property, tended to dissuade men 
from unnecessary slaughter, and to make the ser- 
vices of a bondman valuable. We may, therefore, 
suppose that the practice of enslaving prisoners was 
one of the earliest incidents of warfare. The hu- 
mane principles now established as the law of na- 
tions — that in war we have a right only to the use 
of those means which have a connexion morally 
necessary with the end in view, was unknown to 
the ancients; and whenever prisoners were not saved 
as slaves, they were slaughtered without mercy. 
The most clement of the Roman generals acted 
upon this principle; and the nations which combined 
to overturn the colossal power of the mistress of the 
world, adopted a similar policy. The latter, being 
generally pastoral in their mode of life, did not need 
the labour of slaves; and in their incursions on the 
Roman empire, waged a war of extermination^ spar- 



22 

iiig neither women nor children. The period which 
elapsed from the reign of Theodosius to the reign 
of Alboinus, in Lombardy, (from A. D. 395 to A. D. 
571,) is, in consequence, considered by Robertson, 
the most calamitous epoch in the history of the 
world. ^- 

* Vv'e subjoin from Professor Dew's pamphlet on Slavery, 
a work written with great ability, and to which we invite the 
attention of the reader, the following instance of the manner 
in which war is prosecuted in Africa. It affords, by the way, 
an interesting fact, from which to estimate the comparative 
condition of the African in this country, and in his native 
land. 

" It is needless to multiply instances further to illustrate 
the ideas of the ancient world in regard to their rijrhts to kill 
or enslave at pleasure the unfortunate captive. We will not 
cite the example of Africa, the great storehouse of slavery 
for the modern world, which so completely sustains our po- 
sition in regard to the opinions of men on this subject, farther 
than to make an extract from a speech delivered in the Britisii 
House of Commons, by Mr. Henniker, in 1789, in which the 
speaker asserts that a letter had been received by George III. 
from one of the most pov^'erful African potentates, the Em- 
peror of Dahomey, which letter admirably exemplifies the 
African's notions about the right to kill or enslave prisoners 
of war. 'He (Emperor of Dahomey,) states,' said Mr. H. 
' that as he understood King George was the greatest of white 
kings, so he tliought himself the greatest of black ones. He 
asserted that he c«uld lead five hundred thousand men armed 
into the field ; that being the pursuit to which all his sub- 
jects were bred, and the v/omen only staying at home to plant 
and manure the earth. He had himself fought two hundred 
and nine battles, with great reputation and success ; and had 
conquered the great King of Ardah — the king's head was 
to this day preserved with the flesh and hair; the heads of 
liis generals were distinguished by being placed on each side 
of the doors of their fetiches : with the heads of the inferior 
officers they })aved the space before the doors ; and the heads 
of the common soldiers formed a sort of fringe or outwork 
round the walls of the palace. Since this war he had expe- 
rienced the greatest good fortune, and he hoped in good tinie 
to be able to complete the out-walls of all his great houses, 
to the number of seven, in the same manner.' " 



23 

One of the earliest examples of this species of 
warfare may be found in holy writ. The Israelites 
in invading Canaan, winged against the inhabitants a 
war of extermination; and the only people (the 
Gibeonites,) rescued from the sword, were reserved 
for bondage. " We uill even let them live; but let 
them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto 
all the concjregation." 

War, therefore, appears to have been the first and 
great source of slavery among the ancients. As the 
nations of that period w^ere generally warlike, the 
number of captives must have been very great. In 
truth, the slaves in many countries exceected in 
number the free; and the insurrections, which were 
not unfrequent, were always bloody and destructive. 

Another fruitful source of slavery in the ancient 
world was piracy. This practice prevailed to the 
greatest extent in the earliest ages, when the human 
reason had not emerged from the indistinctness of 
its dawn, when the rights of property were but 
dubiously understood, and when the skill and cou- 
rage required in piratical incursions into neighbour- 
ing nations were regarded with admiration. '^ The 
Grecians," saysThucydides, "intheir primitive state, 
as wxll as the contemporaneous barbarians who in- 

Mr. Morris, who visited this empire in 1772, actually tes- 
tifies to the trutli of tliis letter. He found the palace of the 
emperor an immense assemblage of cane and mud huts, en- 
closed by a high wall. The skulls and jaw-bones of enemies 
slain in battle, formed the favourite ornaments of the palaces 
and temples. The king's apartments were paved, and the 
walls and roof stuck over with these horrid trophies; and if 
a further supply appeared at any time desirable, he announced 
to his general that his "house wanted thatch," when a war 
for that purpose was immediately undertaken. Who can for 
a moment be so absurd as to imagine, that such a prince as 
this could doubt of his right to make slaves in war, when he 
gloried in being able to thatch his house with the heads of 
his enemies ?" 



24 • 

habited the sea coasts and islands, addicted them- 
selves wholly to piracy: it was, in short, their only 
profession and support/^ The most complete con- 
firmation of this account may be found in Homer 
and other writers. Indeed, the pursuit was consi- 
dered heroic and honourable. The dangers attend- 
ing such enterprizes — tlie skill, strength, agility and 
valour required for them — excited the bold and am- 
bitious, while the valuable nature of the spoil recom- 
mended it to the selfish and rapacious. At length, 
however, piracy sunk in reputation as the nations 
advanced in civilization. It fell into the hands of 
low and lawless robbers. Their only object was gainj 
and the practice was continued, accompanied by the 
perpetration of every species of outrage and rapine. 
Slaves becoming more and more valuable, the prac- 
tice was furtively pursued to an immense extent. 
Many were seized and sold into slavery by their 
own countrymen; and every coast had its commerce 
in slaves. The merchants of Thessaly, it is said, 
were particularly infamous for this species of depre- 
dation. The Athenians practised the kidnapping of 
their own people to so alarjning an extent, that it 
was found necessary to enact a law punishing the 
offence with death. 

In all ages the perpetration of crime has been 
punished with slavery. This appears to be the most 
natural and just of the many causes of bondage. The 
necessities of society require that men guilty of atro- 
cious offences, should be deprived of a freedom which 
has become dano-erous to their fellow being-s. If 
society can require the forfeit of life, it may de- 
mand the loss of liberty. Accordingly, we find that 
among the Greeks and Romans, crime was often the 
cause of slavery; and in our own times, not only 
most savage, but civilized countries, among which 
our own land may be mentioned, have made many 



25 

offences punishable with bondage. Even insolvency 
was punished in Greece and Rome with slavery. 
The same custom now obtains in Africa. 

The traffic of slaves consisted, not only in the sale 
of the children of freemen by their parents, and the 
sale of freemen from a want of the means of suste- 
nance, but of the sale of captives and of those born 
in bondage. 

The first instance of slavery by bargain and sale is 
given in the Scripture History of Joseph. The ac- 
count of the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 
twenty pieces of silver and his conveyance to Egypt, 
prove tliat the practice was common at that time, 
and that Egypt was a mart for the traffic in slaves. 
There is, in the Bible, frequent mention of the pur- 
chase and sale of slaves. The purest patriarchs par- 
ticipated in the commerce; and the inspired code of 
the Jews justified and regulated the traffic. The 
Hebrews were allowed to sell their own country- 
men for six years; to sell their sons and daughters; 
and unlimited power to purchase slaves from the 
neigh])ouring nations was expressly given. 

*' If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall 
serve, and in the seventh he shall go free for no- 
thing." 

^^ If a man sell his daughter to be a maid-ser- 
vant, she shall not go out as the men servants." 

'^Both thy bondmen and bondmaids which thou 
shalt have, shall be of the heathen^ that are round 
about you: of them shall ye buy bondmen and bond- 
maids. Moreover of the children of strangers who 
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy; and of the 
families that are with you, which tliey begat in your 
land; and they shall be your possession. And ye 
shall take them as an inheritance for your children 
after j^ou, to inherit them for a possession; they shall 
be your bondmen for ever." 
3 



26 

Egypt appears to have been one of the principal 
markets for the sale of the human species. Homer 
refers to Cyprus and Egypt as the common marts for 
slaves in the Trojan war. The traffic was also prac- 
tised, at that time, in many of the islands of the 
^gean sea. Tyre and Sidon are described by the 
Scriptures, as prosecuting this commerce. In truth, 
it prevailed in the whole of the known world. In 
Greece and Rome, and their colonies, the trade was 
universal; and among the nations which overran the 
South of Europe, it prevailed until the establishment 
of the Feudal System. That system was little else 
than a modification of the slavery of the ancients, to 
suit the circumstances and necessities of the rude and 
warlike nations in which it was adopted. It was ad- 
mirably adapted to the purposes of defence; but did 
little, if any thing, to lighten the bonds of the slave, 
or ameliorate the condition of the race. 

Slavery continued to exist, even in Europe, up to 
a late period. In the middle ages the Venetians car- 
ried on a very extended commerce in slaves; which 
was prohibited by the pope, only so far as it in- 
cluded trade in Christians. In England the Anglo- 
Saxon nobility sold their servants as slaves to fo- 
reigners; and even after the conquest, and until the 
reign of Henry II. slaves were exported, in numbers, 
from England to Ireland. 



CHAPTER II. 



Slavery among the ^^ncients continued — Volun- 
tary Slavery — Roman Mcrcenarii — Grecian 
Prodigals — German En th usiasts — Condition 
of Slaves — Power and inhumanity of Masters. 

Perhaps slavery, when resulting from insolvency, 
might with propriety be regarded as voluntary. 
The freeman who pursued a course which resulted 
in bondage, and thus incurred a fate which might 
have been avoided, may be considered as having 
assumed it. If this be admitted, the number of vo- 
luntary bondmen in Greece and Rome, where the 
refinement of society rendered the vicissitudes of 
fortune frequent, must be accounted very great. 

In Rome there existed a large body of slaves, or 
servants, known as mercenarii. This title was 
given them because they received hire. They were 
free-born citizens, set down in the books as liheri, 
and distinguished from the foreigners, or alieni, 
who served the rich. 

In the time of the Emperor Claudian, the Roman 
Senate passed a decree permitting those who were 
born free to sell their freedom and become slaves. 
This law remained in force until abrogated by Leo. 

The Grecian Thetes were servants of a character 
somewhat similar to the mercenarii. They re- 
ceived dre^compense for their labours; and, though 
treated ks slaves and obliged to perform the most 
servile offices, were not completely subject to the 



28 

will of their master, but could, at the expiration of 
a certain term, obtain their- discharge if used with 
illegal severity. 

There was, amongst the Greeks, a species of slaves 
denominated Prodigals. They were those who, 
having incurred debts which they w^ere unable to 
liquidate, were sold for the satisfaction of their cre- 
ditors. The Delinquents were debtors of a simi- 
lar description, who having imprudently subjected 
themselves to the loss of their liberty, were sen- 
tenced to the gallies and laboured at the oar. 

The most singular class of which we have an ac- 
count, were the German Enthusiasts. They were 
gamblers, who, pursuing their intoxicating and fatal 
passion to the last stake, maddened by the excite- 
ment of the game, placed their persons on the hazard 
of the die, and, in case of failure, were sold as slaves. 
The whole account exhibits, in vivid colours, the 
strength of the passion for gaming — a passion which 
prevails with equal power, in the hut of the savage 
and the hell of the more finished gamester of refined 
society. Tacitus gives the following description of 
the Enthusiasts. ^'The loser,^' says the historian, 
" goes into voluntary servitude; and though younger 
and stronger than the person with whom he played, 
patiently suflers himself to be bound and sold. Their 
perseverance in so bad a custom is styled honour. 
The slaves thus obtained are immediately exchanged 
away in commerce, that the winner may get clear 
of the scandal of his victory." 

The condition of slaves among the ancients was 
totally different from that of modern slaves. In- 
stead of being protected, as now, not only from un- 
just severity on the part of the master, but from 
suffering or want, they were wholly in the power of 
their owners. There was no limit to the power of 
the master over the slave. The latter was, in a civil 



29 

sense, dead. His limbs, life, faculties and afiections 
were all at the mercy of his lord. In a legal point 
of view, he had neither name nor tribe; he was re- 
cognized as possessing no rights; and was, in fact, 
as completely within the power of the master as his 
horse or his dog. 

There were, however, some partial exceptions to 
this general description. The Egyptian slave, though 
perhaps a greater drudge than any other, was pro- 
tected from murder, and could, if he succeeded in 
reaching the temple of Hercules, secure a retreat 
from the oppressive severity of his master. The 
Hebrews also appear to have treated their slaves 
with lenity. 

Athens, however, was distinguished above all the 
nations of antiquity for her peculiar humanity to 
slaves. In no place were they allowed so many 
privileges or treated with so much kindness. De- 
mosthenes, in his Second Philippic, states that " the 
condition of a slave in Athens was preferable to that 
of a free citizen in many other countries." They 
were allowed great liberty of speech, and were per- 
mitted to enjoy a certain portion of time in their 
own peculiar pursuits, their private labours, amuse- 
ments, amours or hours of relaxation and rest. 
They also had a temple of refuge; and were allowed 
the privilege of appealing to the legal tribunal 
against their masters in case of harshness or inhu- 
manity. Besides these advantages, they possessed 
the invaluable privilege of redeeming themselves 
from bondage. They had an opportunity of work- 
ing for themselves; and when their skill or industry 
had enabled them to accumulate a sufficient sum, 
they might purchase manumission, and become free 
for ever. 

In Sparta and Carthage, the slaves were treated 
with more severity. In Rome, the power of the 
3 * • 



30 

master over his slave was absolute, extending to the 
right of depriving him of life. This severity was 
moderated under the emperors; and by a law of 
Adrian, the right of the master to slay his slave was 
withdrawn. By the Roman law, if a master was kill- 
ed, all the slaves under the same roof or near enough 
to be able to hear his cries, were put to death. This 
severe provision was, we presume, intended to pre- 
vent those bloody acts of vengeance to which the 
cruelty of the master, at times, impelled the slave. 
The slave, and all that belonged, or could belong 
to him, was considered the property of the master. 
From the conduct of some of the most venerated 
patriots of Rome, it appears that inhumanity to 
slaves excited neither surprise nor censure. It was 
the practice of the elder Cato to sell his superannuated 
slaves at any price rather than maintain an useless 
burthen. Indeed, it appears to have been a custom 
in Rome to expose old, useless and sick slaves on an 
island of the Tiber to perish; and a law of Claudian 
upon the subject, instead of punishing and suppress- 
ing the barbarous practice, merely gave liberty to 
any slave who chanced to recover after having been 
thus exposed and abandoned. The same law pro- 
hibits masters from killing their slaves, merely for 
old age or sickness. Italy and Sicily were full of 
places of confinement, called Ergastula, in which 
slaves were kept at labour. One of the most for- 
midable insurrections was occasioned by the break- 
ing up of these Ergastula, and the simultaneous 
liberation of sixty thousand slaves. 

From the facts, stated in this and the preceding 
chapter, it will be seen that slavery has always pre- 
vailed; and is so interwined with the necessities of 
the race, that while man exists, slavery will proba- 
bly exist also. It will also be seen, that the wisest 
and most liberal nations of antiquity did not hesi- 



31 

tate to encourage domestic slavery; and, instead of 
regarding it as inconsistent with political liberty or 
injurious to national weal, they sanctioned it as one 
of the greatest securities and auxiliaries of both. It 
will be observed, in addition, that the institution of 
slavery has not only had the assent and sanction of 
all the patriots, philanthropists and sages of anti- 
quity, but that the divine will has been distinctly 
and actively expressed in its favour. A comparison 
of the condition of ancient and modern slavery may, 
also, perhaps, enlighten the prejudices of some of 
those who affect to sympathize with the bondman, 
and lament over the fictitious recital of the stern- 
ness of the American master and the hardships of 
the American slave. — But on these points we will 
speak more at large hereafter. 



CHAPTER III. 



Origin, progress, and abolition of the African 
Slave Trade. 

The African slave trade was commenced by the 
Portuguese. In 1434 a Portuguese captain landed in 
Guinea; and having captured some negro lads, he 
bore them to the south of Spain, and sold them to 
great advantage. The opening thus made was soon 
crowded with adventurers. The Portuguese made 
descents upon the coast of Africa, seized the inhabit- 
ants, and carried them into slavery. These depre- 
dations at length became so frequent and formidable, 
that the blacks retreated into the interior. Thither, 
however, their persecutors followed them. The 
Portuguese entered their rivers, and penetrating 
into the country, continued and extended their 
spoliations. 

The traffic soon became so important, as to render 
a more permanent and secure system necessary to 
furnisli the traders with the requisite supply of 
slaves. The plan was changed. Recourse to force 
was abandoned, and a peaceful commerce was com- 
menced with the natives. Settlements were made, 
forts built, and factories erected; and the trade soon 
became extended and mutual. 

The Portuguese erected their first fort at D'El- 
mina, in 1481. Other European nations soon fol- 
lowed their example. Treaties were made with the 
African kings; they agreed to furnish slaves, and 



33 

the traders, in return, brought them the luxuries 
and ornaments of Europe. 

The object of this trade, on the part of the Euro- 
peans, was to supply the necessities of their extensive 
western colonies. The newly discovered and settled 
portions of the western world, being generally in a 
latitude fatal to European constitutions, it was found 
necessary to subject the natives to labour. In most 
instances this proved unsuccessful; and recourse 
was, at length, had to the natives of Africa, whose 
constitutions were found to agree with the exposure 
and hardships required. In 1517, Las Casas, who 
had seen the poor Indians melting away like dew, 
proposed to the Emperor Charles V. to substitute 
negro labour; and a charter was accordingly granted 
for the importation of four thousand slaves annually 
into Hispaniola. 

The slave trade, which at first consisted wholly 
in the transportation of those who had forfeited their 
liberty in their own country, as criminals or pri- 
soners of war, was at length extended by the wants 
of the colonies, and the rapacity of the African 
chiefs. Those who were suspected of crime became 
slaves; and causeless wars were undertaken, for the 
sole purpose of making captives for the slave trade. 
The traffic continued to extend with the growth 
and wants of the colonies, up to the close of the 
eighteenth century. 

Those who collect the slaves for the traders have 
been divided into several classes. The first consisted 
of a chain of black traders from the interior to the 
sea-board. They procured slaves, sometimes at a 
distance of twelve hundred miles in the country, 
and forwarded them on to the factories. The second 
class was composed of individuals who travelled in- 
land, and collecting as many slaves as they could 
transport, brought them to the stations. The third 
class comprised those who ascended the rivers to a 



34 

great height, in large canoes, and thus collected num- 
bers of slaves. The prices paid for slaves were ge- 
nerally trivial, but advanced as the trader approached 
the coast. The articles given in exchange consisted 
generally of liquor, muskets, powder, &c. 

Large numbers of slaves were procured by the 
depredations of native princes, dignified with the 
name of wars. It appears that the native Africans, 
instead of being in the state of primeval innocence 
and undisturbed tranquillity, in which they have 
been frequently painted, may be regarded as the 
most savage of the barbarous races of mankind. 
They are in continual war with each other. Differ- 
ent tribes are constantly struggling to make pri- 
soners of each other, in order to provide slaves for 
the Europeans; and when enemies cannot be thus 
obtained, the chiefs frequently assail their own vil- 
lages, make their own people slaves, and sell them 
to the whites. Perhaps a more revolting picture of 
humanity has never been drawn than may be found 
in the description of Africa; and much as the evils 
of slavery are to be deplored, it is extremely doubt- 
ful whether the lot of the African is not absolutely 
improved, by being, even forcibly, placed under the 
protection of the laws of a civilized and Christian 
country. 

Clarkson, the great champion of Africa, divides 
the slaves into seven classes. The first and largest 
class consists of those who are kidnapped. It seems 
that the inhabitants of Africa prey upon each other 
like wild beasts. Kidnapping prevails throughout 
the whole country. It is said to be the first princi- 
ple of the natives never to go unarmed. This pre- 
caution is rendered necessary by the predatory habits 
of their countrymen. The second order of slaves is 
composed of those whose villages are depopulated 
in capturing them. The third class consists of those 
convicted of crime. The fourth class includes pri- 



35 

soners of war. The fifth class comprehends those 
who are slaves by birth. The number of native 
slaves is said to be very large; and a humane writer 
alleges that many make a regular business of breed- 
ing slaves for commerce. The sixth and seventh 
classes are composed of gamblers and insolvents. 

All writers agree in describing the habits of the 
native negro as extremely savage, and their conduct 
towards each other as treacherous, lawless, and to 
the last degree inhuman. Violence, rapine, and 
slaughter appear to prevail throughout that unhappy 
country. The native wars are described as merci- 
less and wanton, having no motive but the capture 
of prisoners, and being regulated by no law human 
or divine. Mr. Ashmun, the agent at Liberia, gives 
the following account of the extermination of a tribe 
by one of the native chiefs. The incident took place 
in 1822. 

' " I wish to afford the board a full view of our situa- 
tion, and of the African character. The following 
incident I relate, not for its singularity, for similar 
events take place perhaps every month in the year; 
but it has fallen under my own observation, and I 
can vouch for its authenticity. King Boatswain, our 
most powerful supporter and steady friend among 
the natives, (so he has uniformly shown himself,) 
received a quantity of goods in trade from a French 
slaver, for which he stipulated to pay young slaves. 
He makes it a point of honour to be punctual to his 
engagements. The time was at hand when he ex- 
pected the return of the slaver. He had not the 
slaves. Looking round on the peaceable tribes about 
him for his victims, he singled out the Queahs, a 
small agricultural and trading people of most inof- 
fensive character. His warriors were skilfully dis- 
tributed to the different hamlets, and making a si- 
multaneous assault on the sleeping inhabitants, in 
the dead of night, accomplished, without difficulty 



36 

or resistance, the annihilation (with the exception 
of a few towns) of the whole tribe. Every adult 
man and woman was murdered; every hut was fired; 
very young children generally shared the fate of 
their parents. The boys and girls alone were re- 
served to pay the Frenchman." — Such are the hor- 
rors which surround the African in his native coun- 
try. 

The natives of Africa, instead of regarding the 
slave-trade as oppressive or calamitous, do all in 
their power to foster and encourage it, and oppose 
every effort made by the European governments to 
suppress it. When, in consequence of the French 
revolution, the demand for slaves had lessened, the 
king of Dahomey, on the slave coast, sent, in 1796, 
an embassy to Lisbon, consisting of his brother and 
son, for the purpose of effecting a treaty with Por- 
tugal and reviving the slave trafhc. Upon the Afri- 
can coast, since the abolition of the slave trade, 
whenever attempts have been made to dislodge the 
factories and fortifications of the slavers, the natives 
have gathered and interposed to protect them. 

When the slaves are collected in the ship of the 
slave trader, they are bound two and two together, 
and placed in their apartments, the men occupying 
the fore part, the women the after part, and the 
boys the middle, of the vessel. The tops of these 
apartments are grated for the admission of air. The 
vessels are generally from eleven to eight hun- 
dred tons, and carry from thirty to fifteen hun- 
dred slaves at a time. The apartments vary in 
height from six feet to less than three feet. In this 
confined room, they are packed in the smallest pos- 
sible shape — each individual being allowed, in the 
best regulated ships, but sixteen English inches in 
width, two feet eight inches in height, and five feet 
eleven inches in length. It is unnecessary to paint 



the horrors of such .a situation. In an atmosphere 
heated and poHuted to sufibcation, with scarcely 
space to move, and crowded by hundreds in the hold 
of a vessel, it is not strange that they die in great 
numbers. In fine weather, they are brought upon 
deck and made to exercise themselves, by dancing 
and singing; and, as the death or illness of the slaves 
is a heavy loss to the trader, we have no reason to 
believe that they neglect the means in their power 
to preserve their health, or that they treat them with 
unnecessary and wanton cruelty. Their design is 
gain; and, though they exhibit but little humanity 
in its pursuit, and are willing to perpetrate any 
enormity for money, it is not probable that they 
would indulge a cruelty equally unnecessary and 
unprofitable. The negro is regarded, in their horrid 
philosophy, as a valuable animal, and is treated with 
neither more nor less humanity than they would 
treat a valuable horse. The sufferings of the poor 
negro, during the voyage, are, however, undeniable, 
and may be conceived from the fact that from fifteen 
to twenty per cent, die on the passage. Indeed, the 
number is sometimes much greater; and Wilber- 
force stated, that "out of every lot of one hundred 
shipped from Africa, seventeen died in about nine 
weeks, and not more than fifty lived to become ef- 
fective labourers in our islands.'^ 

Of the extent of the slave trade it is difficult to 
speak with confidence. When the subject was taken 
up in the British House of Commons, it was assert- 
ed, that the British alone bought 40,000 slaves annu- 
ally. Mr. Dundas of the British Parliament, stated, 
that, in 1791, the British importation consisted of 
74,000. From the commencement of the trade up 
to the present time, there is reason to believe that 
several millions of slaves have been taken from the 
shores of Africa. 
4 



38 

The slave trade received, at different times, the 
express sanction of the governments of all the com- 
mercial nations of Europe. The Spanish govern- 
ment, the French under Louis XIII., and the Eng- 
lish under queen Elizabeth, formally permitted the 
traffic. The trade was regarded as legitimate and 
proper; and received the decided encouragement of 
the governments interested in its support. 

The slave trade was abolished by Virginia, a sove- 
reign and independent state, in 1778. To the Old 
Dominion, therefore, belongs the honour of having 
struck the first decisive blow at that inhuman traffic. 
Several other states of this confederacy followed. In 
1792, Denmark passed a law, providing for the abo- 
lition of the trade in 1803. The importation of slaves 
ceased in the United States in January, 1808, and in 
Great Britain and her colonies in March of the same 
year. In 1815, Portugal provided for the abolition 
of the slave trade in 1823. France, in 1815, con- 
sented to its immediate abolition. Spain, in 1817, 
agreed to abolish it in 1820. The Netherlands pro- 
hibited it in 1818; Sweden in 1813; and Brazil in 
182fj. 

Notwithstanding the prohibition of the slave trade 
by almost every government in Christendom, and 
the great efforts made for its effectual suppression, 
there is every reason to believe that it still exists to 
a frightful degree, and that what it may have lost in 
extent it has gained in cruelty. The trade is now 
carried on by stealth, and many restraints are add- 
ed, which before the abolition of the trade were 
unnecessary. Mr. Walsh, in his notices of Brazil, 
in 1828 and 1829, says, "this horrid traffic in human 
fiesh is nearly as extensively carried on as ever, and 
under circumstances perhaps of a more revolting 
character. The restriction of slavery to the south 
of the line, was, in fact, nugatory, and evaded on 



39 

all occasions. The whole number of slaves captured 
by our cruisers, and afterwards emancipated, for 
nine years, from June 1819 to July 1828, was 13,281, 
being about 1400 on an average each year. During 
that period, it is supposed that nearly 100,000 hu- 
man beings were annually transported as slaves 
from different parts of the coast, of whom more 
than 43,000 were legally imported into one city 
alone." 



CHAPTER IV. 



Origin and Progress of Slavery in this Country. 

Slavery has existed in this country from a very 
early period. It was introduced shortly after its 
settlement, contributed to its infant vigour, and has 
since '^ grown with its growth and strengthened 
with its strength." It w^as at, and after, the time 
of its introduction, common to all the European 
colonies in America. Each of the Anglo-American 
provinces comprised, at different times, a greater or 
less number of slaves; and all were equally involved 
in the sanction of slave holding. It is true, that the 
North has never contained so large a number of 
slaves as the South. The climate of the southern 
provinces, the nature of their agricultural pursuits, 
and the necessities of their inhabitants, induced the 
extensive employment of slave labour. In the North, 
the negro would have been a burthen, not an aid. 
The hardy pilgrims of New England, so far from 
needing the labour of the African, could scarce have 
spared him the means of subsistence. Had the pil- 
grims fainted beneath the sultry sun of the South, 
had they been engaged in the same pursuits as their 
southern brethren, and felt the same necessity for 
aid, they would not now be enabled to boast their 
exemption from a slave population. The absence 
of slavery in the Northern states, is wholly to be 
ascribed to the fact, that slaves have not been neces- 
sary nor even valuable to the inhabitants of that sec- 



41 

tion of our country. It is true that they have always 
felt a repugnance to the introduction of Africans into 
the country, but that repugnance has not been more 
warmly cherished, or more forcibly manifested than 
by the people of the South; and those citizens of our 
Northern states who express such a holy abhorrence 
of slavery in other sections of our countr}^, should 
be reminded that their exemption is wholly the re- 
sult of the accidents of situation and climate; and 
that they would themselves be slave-holders, had it 
not been their interest, or the interest of their an- 
cestors, to be otherwise. 

The importation of slaves from Africa to the 
West India islands was commenced, and had at- 
tained a considerable height, before the enterprize 
of England, excited by the gallant Raleigh, had 
been turned to the settlement of North America. 
England had already engaged successfully in the 
slave trade. Hawkins, in 1562, entered into the 
commerce, and found its profits so great, that Queen 
Elizabeth herself did not scruple, not only to sanc- 
tion its prosecution, but to share its responsibility 
and profits. This was the commencement of a pur- 
suit which was afterwards followed by England with 
unequalled ardour and unequalled success. At a sub- 
sequent period, she almost monopolized the slave 
trade; and attained a degree of skill, hardihood and 
cruelty in its prosecution, which her rivals in the 
hateful traffic were never able to surpass. To Eng- 
land, that nation of philanthropists, whose people 
have taken so deep an interest in the subject of 
American slavery, is to be ascribed the importation 
of a majority of those WTetched beings who were 
torn from their native country and sold into slavery. 
But of this hereafter. 

African slaves were first introduced into the North 
American colonies, in 1620. A Dutch ship arrived 
4 * 



42 

in Virginia, having on board twenty slaves, who 
were sold to individuals in the colony. — The trade 
thus commenced was continued, but, in consequence 
of the opposition of the colony, did not, for many 
years, become extensive. Thirty years after the 
first arrival of slaves in Virginia, that colony con- 
tained fifty whites to one negro. Even after seventy 
years had elapsed from the date of the foundation of 
the colony, it comprised, proportionally, much fewer 
slaves than several of the Northern states at the time 
of the war of independence. It was not until the 
slave trade fell into the hands of the British, and was 
prosecuted under the immediate smile of the Eng- 
lish government, that the number of blacks in the 
North American colonies was greatly increased. 

Under the auspices of the mother country, slavery 
was rapidly extended. The want of labourers in the 
Southern colonies enabled the traders, notwithstand- 
ing the opposition of the local legislatures, to throw 
large numbers of slaves into the country. Some 
years after, we find that the blacks outnumbered the 
whites in the South. In 1730, there were twenty- 
eight thousand negroes in South Carolina. In 1740, 
the slaves in South Carolina were three times as 
numerous as the whites. The blacks in Virginia 
were also, at that period, greatly superior in num- 
bers to their masters. For a long time afterwards, 
the slaves continued to be a majority. In 1763, the 
black population of Virginia was one hundred thou- 
sand; and the white seventy thousand. In South 
Carolina the blacks were ninety thousand; and the 
whites only forty thousand. 

The slave trade, notwithstanding the repugnance 
of the colonies, was prosecuted up to the era of the 
revolution. The number of slaves continued to in- 
crease accordingly up to that time. The number 
of slaves, and their proportion to the whites, from 



43 

1790 up to 1830, will appear by the following 
table. 



Ceyisns of 


Slaves. 


Total Population. 


1790, - 


697,697 


3,929,827 


1800, - 


896,849 


5,305,925 


1810, - 


1,191,364 


7,289,314 


1820, - 


1,538,064 


9,638,181 


1830, - 


2,010,436 


12,856,407 



The relative proportion of the free and slave 
population, may be better understood by the fol- 
lowing: 

In 1790, for every 100 free persons there were 21.59 slaves. 
1800, " do. " 18.99 " 

1810, " do. " 19.53 " 

1820, " do. " 18.99 " 

1830, " do. " 18.53 " 

It is well known that the African, fresh from his 
savage wilds, is much more intractable than the ne- 
gro born in this country. The genial influence of 
civilization, the advantages of Christianity, and a 
sense of the kindness and protection of the master, 
render the American-born negro often a domestic 
friend, and attach him to the family of his master 
so fondly that he is prepared to defend them with 
his life rather than assail them. The early Africans 
in this country, though more gentle and voluptuous 
than those imported into the West Indies, were 
fiercer and more prone to insurrection than any of 
their descendants. Upon several different occasions 
they rose upon their masters; but notwithstanding 
their fearful superiority in numbers, were, without 
difficulty, quelled. In 1738, the blacks of South 
Carolina revolted, but were subdued. At an earlier 
period, in 1712, the negroes in New York rose, set 
fire to the city, and killed those who attempted to 



44 

stay the conflagration. They were^ without serious 
difficulty quelled; and a large number were executed 
for their ofiences. 

The rapid increase of the negro population of the 
south, until the time of the revolution, is tobe ascribed 
not merely to natural increase, the result of the kind 
treatment of the southern slave holder, the lightness 
of his work, and the abundance of his food, but to ex- 
tensive and continued importation. The slave trade 
was prosecuted with energy until the declaration of 
independence enabled the Americans to suppress it. 
The privilege was embraced as soon as circumstances 
rendered it prudent. Virginia abolished the slave 
trade in 1778. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and Rhode Island suppressed it in 1780, 87, 
88. The American continental congress passed a 
resolution against the purchase of imported slaves; 
and, not having power to suppress it, published an 
exhortation to the colonies to abandon the trade al- 
together. 

In the formation of a constitution for the United 
States, in 1787, the following clauses in relation to 
slavery, were incorporated with the national charter. 

'^Representation and direct taxes shall be appor- 
tioned among the several states which may be in- 
cluded within this union, according to their respec- 
tive numbers, which shall be determined by adding 
to the whole number of free persons, including those 
bound to service for a term of years, and exclud- 
ing Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other per- 
sons. ^^ 

" The migration or importation of such persons as 
any of the states now existing shall think proper to 
admit, shall not be prohibited by the congress prior 
to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight; 
but a tax, or duty, may be imposed on such importa- 
tion, not exceeding ten dollars for each person." 



45 

Though the last quoted provision of the constitu- 
tion prevented the suppression of the importation of 
slaves, before 1808, the third congress, under the 
present government, prohibited the carrying on of 
the slave trade from our ports. Several subsequent 
enactments discouraging and restraining the trade 
were passed: and on the 2d of March, 1807, the 
importation of slaves was fully and effectually pro- 
hibited under the heaviest penalties. 

Of the course of the South, in relation to this sub- 
ject, Mr. Walsh makes the following remarks: " In 
truth, the representatives from our southern states 
have been foremost in testifying their abhorrence 
of the traffic; an abhorrence springing from a deep 
sense, not merely of its iniquity, but of the magni- 
tude of the evil which it has entailed upon the 
country. It was only at the last session of the 
American congress (March 1, 1819,) that a member 
from Virginia proposed the following regulation, to 
which the house of representatives agreed without a 
division. ' Every person who shall import into the 
United States, or knowingly aid or abet the impor- 
tation into the United States, of any African negro, 
or other person, with intent to sell or use such negro, 
or other person, as a slave, or shall purchase any 
such slave, knowing him or her to be thus imported, 
shall, on conviction thereof, in ajiy circuit court of 
the United States, be punished with death.' The 
rarity of capital punishment in the penal code of 
the United States, and the extreme aversion from a 
recourse to it, universally prevailing, make this in- 
stance a potent proof of the sincerity of the disposi- 
tions which we profess respecting the slave trade. '^ 

At the same session, congress passed a law pro- 
viding for the effectual suppression of the slave 
traffic. From that time to the present, the importa- 
tion of slaves, denounced as it is by the laws, and 



46 

abhorred by the people, must have been extremely 
limited. Our slave population has since increased 
with that rapidity which the comforts and abundance 
of their condition induce; but not, as will be seen 
hereafter, in a ratio greater than the increase of the 
whites, nor sufficient to justify the fears of those 
nervous patriots who apprehend danger from their 
numbers. They have remained quiet and contented, 
with the exception of a limited insurrection caused 
by the sinister interference of misguided fanatics. 
The South has grown affluent in her slave popula- 
tion; and the South-west, with the aid of their ro- 
bust and well-directed labour, is improving with a 
rapidity almost unequalled. Meanwhile, the North 
has shared generously in the universal welfare. Her 
manufactories have been supplied with Southern 
cotton, and have again found outlets in the Southern 
markets. North and South have filled the stations 
and performed the duties assigned them by nature; 
and each have equally benefited by the institution 
of slavery. The slaves themselves, without a com- 
plaint, or a cause of complaint, have lived on in 
tranquillity and comfort, and attained a degree of 
moral and religious excellence which in no other 
country or condition have they been able to reach. 



CHAPTER V. 



*dm erica not responsible for the introduction of 
Slavery into this country — Of the course of 
the British Government, \c. 

As the bitterest invective has been used by the 
writers and speakers of Great Britain against this 
country on account of its sanction of slavery, and as 
even among our own citizens at the North many are 
found who regard it as a national crime, it may be 
well to show how far the Americans are responsible 
for it, and who, if it be a crime, are the guilty au- 
thors of African slavery. It will be our aim, by a 
plain and succinct narrative of the facts connected 
with the introduction of Africans into this country 
to prove, 

1. That the people of this country did not intro- 
duce slavery within its borders. 

2. That they opposed its introduction with ardour 
and energy. 

3. That this opposition was general with the co- 
lonies — commenced at the introduction of slavery, 
and continued until it succeeded in efiecting the 
abolition of the slave trade. 

4. That the course of the colonies on this subject 
was not only repulsed, but resented by the English 
government. 

5. That some of the Southern states were pre- 
eminently distinguished by the boldness and energy 
with which they opposed the slave trade. 



48 

6. That the anxiety of the Americans to prevent 
the introduction of slaves into the country, was one 
of the causes which induced the declaration of in- 
dependence. 

7. That slavery was introduced into, and entailed 
upon, this country, by Great Britain. 

8. That the English government directly sanc- 
tioned and aided the importation of Africans into 
America. 

9. That the English are accountable for a greater 
amount of atrocity in the prosecution of the slave 
trade, than any other people. 

10. That they engaged more extensively in the 
trade, urged it with more skill and cruelty, and 
effected a greater amount of importation, than any of 
their rivals. 

11. That they opposed the abolition of the trade 
until it became their interest to abolish it, and then 
made a merit of an act of craft and policy. 

12. That the English people, ever since its abo- 
lition by parliament, have been engaged in the 
trade to a great extent. 

The English government has been no stranger to 
those acts of oppression in which slavery originates. 
We have seen that the Anglo-Saxons sold their ser- 
vants as slaves. In the reign of Edward VI. a law 
was passed, authorizing the sale of ^^all idle vaga- 
bonds" as slaves. The Scots taken at the battle of 
Dunbar were sent into involuntary slavery in New 
England. Indeed, it seems to have been the esta- 
blished practice of the times to ship prisoners to this 
country. At the same time, crowded and cruel ex- 
portations of Irish Catholics were made, accompa- 
nied by all the atrocities of the negro slave trade. 
"In 1685," says Bancroft, in his History of the 
United States, " when nearly a thousand of the pri- 
soners, condemned for participating in the insurrec- 



49 

tion of Monmouth, were sentenced to transportation, 
some gentlemen of influence at court, among others 
sir Christopher Musgrave, begged of the monarch 
the convicted insurgents as a merchantable com- 
modity, and satisfied their avarice by the sale of their 
countrymen into slavery." These cases differ in no 
particular from African slavery. If the people of 
England, at so late and refined a period, were willing 
to traffic in the flesh and blood of their own kin and 
colour — we need not wonder at their eager and in- 
human ardour in the African slave trade. 

From 1567, when queen Elizabeth became the 
partner of sir John Hawkins in stealing slaves from 
the shores of Africa, and s^miggling theTJi, against 
the laws of Spain, into the Spanish colonies — from 
that period, up to the time of the American Revolu- 
tion, the English commerce in slaves was prosecuted 
without intermission, and to an almost incredible ex- 
tent. Mr. Walsh's Appeal — a work which does 
honour to American literature, and from which we 
have derived much valuable information on this 
subject — says, '^ England herself supplied her North 
American colonies from the outset with negroes, 
whom she sought, seized, and manacled on the coast 
of Africa, and dragged and sold into this continent. 
The institution of negro slavery — ^ the great curse 
of Am.erica' — lies at her door. What was her mo- 
tive ? The alleviation of the lot of her sons, whom 
she had driven into the distant wilderness? No 
British writer has counted so far upon the simplicity 
of mankind, as to hazard this explanation. The 
motive was sheer love of gain; omniverous avarice, 
looking not merely to the immediate profit upon the 
cargo of human flesh, but to the greater and perma- 
nent productiveness of the settlements, whose staples 
were to be monopolized by the mother country." 

The slave trade received the sanction of the Bri- 
5 



50 

tish government from its commencement, and retain- 
ed it to its close. The reigns of Elizabeth, Charles 
I. and IL, James II., and William III."* afforded it 
the most marked and active encouragement. The 
minister of the latter declared the trade to be "high- 
ly beneficial to the nation." The sanction of govern- 
ment was expressed not only by acts of Parliament, 
bat by the aid of every department, and the policy 
of every administration. The course pursued to- 
wards the colonies, on this subject, was uniform. 
In 1765, the governor of Jamaica, in opposition to 
an attempt made by that colony to abolish the slave 
trade to the island, said that his instructions would 
never allow him to approve the measure; and when, 
in 1774, the attempt was repeated, Great Britain, by 
the Earl of Dartmouth, President of the Board, re- 
plied — " We cannot allow the colonies to check or 
discourage, in any degree, a traffic so beneficial to 
the nation." 

The slave-trade was commenced in England be- 

* In the 16th of James I. a royal charter was gTiinted to 
a number of eminent citizens of London, as a joint stock 
company, to trade with Africa. Another company was cre- 
ated by Charles 1. " On the accession of Charles II." says 
Davenant, "a representation being soon made to him, that 
the British plantations in America were, by degrees, advanc- 
ing to such a condition as necessarily required a greater sup- 
ply of servants and labourers than could well be spared from 
England, without the danger of depopulating his majesty's 
native dominions, his majesty did {upon account of supplying 
these plantations with negroes) publicly 2niv7e all his subjects 
to the subscription of a new joint stock, for recovering and 
carrying on the trade to Africa." In 1793, twenty-six acts 
of Parliament could be enumerated, encouraging and sanction- 
ing the trade. The English government, in several treaties 
with Spain, engaged to supply her colonies with negroes ; 
and, by the treaty of Utrecht, Spain granted to the English 
sovereign the contract for introducing 4800 negroes annually 
into the Spanish dominions, for thirty years. 



51 

fore the existence of the American colonies. After 
their settlement, and the introduction of slavery 
by the mother country, the colonies had no power 
over the commerce, and cannot be regarded as an- 
swerable for its continuance. That they w^ere sin- 
cerely and decidedly opposed to it, is demonstrated 
by their early, anxious, and continued efforts 
against it. 

On the introduction of slaves into South Carolina, 
that colony passed a law prohibiting further impor- 
tation; but Great Britain rejected the law, rebuked 
the colony, and declared the trade " beneficial and 
necessary to the mother country.'^ 

Virginia was early and constant in her eflforts to dis- 
courage the trade. " The negro race," says Bancroft, 
" was, from the first, regarded with disgust, and its 
union with the whites forbidden under ignominious 
penalties.'^ " The laws of Virginia," he also re- 
marks, ^^ at a very early period discouraged its in- 
crease by a special tax upon female slaves." In 
1662, the Virginia legislature passed a law prohibit- 
ing " Englishmen, traders and others" from bring- 
ing Indians, as servants or slaves, into the colony, 
thus expressing their anxiety to suppress the trade 
when permitted to do so by the mother country. 
Judge Tucker, in his Notes on Blackstone, enume- 
rates twenty-three acts by the Virginia legislature, 
imposing duties on slaves imported into the colony. 
This duty amounted, at one time, to twenty per 
cent. The following passage occurs in Brougham's 
Colonial Policy. ^' Every measure proposed by the 
Colonial legislatures that did not meet the entire 
concurrence of the British cabinet, was sure to be 
rejected, in the last instance, by the crown. In the 
colonies, the direct power of the crown, backed by 
all the resources of the mother country, prevents 
any measure obnoxious to the crown from being 



52 

carried into effect, even by the unanimous efforts of 
the Colonial legislature. If examples were required, 
we might refer to the history of the abolition of the 
slave-trade in Virginia. A duty on the importation 
of negroes had been imposed, amounting to a prohi- 
bition. The assembly, induced by a temporary pe- 
culiarity of circumstances, repealed this law by a 
bill which received the immediate sanction of the 
crown. But never afterwards could the royal assent 
be obtained to a renewal of the duty, although, as 
we are told by Mr. Jefferson, all manner of expedi- 
ents were tried for this purpose, by almost every 
subsequent assembly that met under the colonial 
government. The very first assembly that met 
under the new constitution, finally prohibited the 
traffic." 

In 1772, the Virginia assembly prepared, and 
transmitted to the throne, a petition for leave to 
abolish the slave-trade to that colony, from which 
the following is extracted. 

" We are encouraged to look up to the throne 
and implore your Majesty's paternal assistance in 
averting a calamity of a most alarming nature. 

'' The importation of slaves into the colonies 
from the coast of Africa, hath long been considered 
as a trade of great inhumanity, and, under its pre- 
sent encouragement, we have too much reason to 
fear, will endanger the very existence of your Ma- 
jesty's American dominions. 

" We are sensible that some of your Majesty's 
subjects of Great Britain may reap emolument from 
this sort of traffic, but when we consider that it 
greatly retards the settlement of the colonies with 
more useful inhabitants, and may in time have the 
most destructive influence, we presume to hope 
that the interest of a few will be disregarded when 
placed in competition with the security and happi- 



63 

ness of such numbers of your Majesty's dutiful and 
loyal subjects. 

'' Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we 
most humbly beseech your Majesty to remove all 
those restraints on your Majesty'' s governors of 
this colony which inhibit their assenting to such 
laws as might check so very pernicious a com- 
merce.^^ The petition was rejected, 

Massachusetts exhibited equal boldness and ardour 
in her opposition to the slave-trade. In 1645, two 
citizens of Boston, one a member of the church, 
fitted out a ship and sailed for Guinea, to trade for 
negroes. It is somewhat remarkable that the first 
instance of participation in the traffic, on the part of 
the colonies, is to be referred to that state which has 
since become the flivourite laboratory of the aboli- 
tionists and incendiaries. The colonial commerce 
in slaves was always confined, principally, if not 
wholly, to the traders of the North. Whatever 
might have been the conduct of individuals, the co- 
lony manifested the most anxious determination to 
discourage the trade. When the vessel, above re- 
ferred to, arrived, the traders were committed for 
the offence; and the General Court directed that the 
negroes be restored to their native country. About 
the same time, a law was passed prohibiting com- 
merce in slaves, except such as were taken in lawful 
war or condemned to servitude for their crimes; 
and, at a much earlier date, the colony incorporated 
with its penal code, an enactment punishing man- 
stealing with death. In 1703, Massachusetts im- 
posed a duty of 5^4 upon every negro imported into 
the colony. Other efforts were made, but failed in 
consequence of the opposition of the crown. The 
instructions to Governor Wen^vorth of New Hamp- 
shire, dated June 30th, 1761, contained this clause: 
<^ You are not to give your assent to, or pass any 
5* 



54 

law^ imposing duties on negroes imported into 
New Hampshire.^ ^ This appears to have been the 
tenor of the orders of all the governors on this sub- 
ject. In 1774, when the legislature of Massachu- 
setts passed a bill, entitled, " An act to prevent the 
importation of negroes and others, as slaves into this 
province," Governor Huchinson refused his sanc- 
tion and dissolved the assembly. He afterwards, in 
answer to a deputation of blacks, stated that he had 
acted under his instructions. His successor, General 
Gage, was also instructed to refuse his sanction to 
any law, the object of which was the discourage- 
ment of the slave-trade. 

Pennsylvania adopted a similar policy, and passed 
various laws intended to discourage the introduction 
of slaves. All the colonies, in short, united in de- 
precating and abhorring the introduction of negro 
slavery into the country, and passed ineffectual en- 
actments for its discouragement. The efforts of the 
colonies, stripped as they were of all power of legis- 
lation on the subject without the royal assent, neces- 
sarily proved unavaiHng. The mother country was 
not to be turned aside from her purpose. If the 
shrieks of afflicted Africa were unable to move her, 
if she was willing to glut her "omnivorous ava- 
rice," as Mr. Walsh has justly termed it, on the 
tears and blood of the slave, it was not to be ex- 
pected that the prayers and remonstrances of her 
feeble colonies — always the victim of her selfish 
and merciless policy — could shake or soften her 
stern and unscrupulous pursuit of gold. 

That the policy of England on this subject, and 
her cold and sneering disregard of the interests and 
anxiety of the colonies, did much to accelerate 
their subsequent alienation — we have every reason 
to believe. Mr. Burke, in his speech on the conci- 
liation with America, referred to her " refusal to 



55 

deal any more in the inhuman traffic of the negro 
slaves, as one of the causes of her quarrel with Great 
Britain." The first clause of the constitution of the 
state of Virginia, framed immediately after the com- 
mencement of the revolution, mentions ^' the inhu- 
man use of the royal negative'^ to prevent the 
discouragement of the slave-trade, as one of the 
grievances which induced a recourse to the despe- 
rate remedy of revolution. The course of Great 
Britain on this subject is detailed, w4th great force 
and justice, in Mr. Jefferson's original draught of 
the Declaration of American Independence. 

^^He (King George) has waged civil war against 
human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights 
of life and liberty, in the persons of a distant people 
who never offended him: captivating and carrying 
them into slavery in anotlier hemisphere, or to 
incur miserable death in their transportation thither. 
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel 
powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great 
Britain: determined to keep open a market where 
7ne?2 should be bought and sold, he prostituted his 
negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to 
prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce; and 
that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact 
of distinguished dye, he is now exciting these very 
people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase 
that liberty of which he has deprived them, by 
murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded 
them, thus paying off former crimes, committed 
against the liberties of one people, with crimes 
which he urges them to commit against the lives of 
another." 

This, it must be reluctantly admitted, is a correct 
portraiture of the policy of Great Britain towards 
this country, in relation to the subject of slavery. 
While it was her interest to darken our shores with 



56 

African slaves, the inhumanity of the commerce 
was disregarded; the prayers of the colonies were 
repulsed; and her government and people united to 
entail upon us for ever a servile population. No 
sooner, however, is the commerce checked by the 
oppressed colonies, than, in a sudden burst of piety, 
she is agonized at the existence of slavery; shocked 
at our turpitude in holding in bondage those whom 
she has forced upon us in such numbers, that to free 
them would involve both them and us in common 
ruin; and, by a policy the most insidious, she endea- 
vours, of course from motives of the purest philan- 
thropy, to excite the slaves to insurrection and 
murder! Such was her policy during the revolu- 
tion, — such was her policy in the late war — such is 
her policy now. 



CHAPTER VI. 



English Slave Trade — Extent — Cruelty — Mo- 
tives of Jiholition — Violation of the Law Jiho- 
lishiug the Trade, 

Of the various nations who have stained their 
escutcheon with the blood of Africa, who have torn 
her children from their homes, and sold them into 
slavery — England is the most profoundly guilt}^ 
'^The truth is," said Mr. Pitt, in the English par- 
liament, " there is no nation in Europe which has 
plunged so deeply into this guilt as Britain. We 
stopped the natural progress of civilization in Africa. 
We cut her off from the opportunity of improve- 
ment. We kept her down in a state of darkness, 
bondage, ignorance, and bloodshed. We have there 
subverted the whole order of nature; we have ag- 
gravated every national barbarity, and furnished to 
every man motives for committing, under the name 
of trade, acts of perpetual hostility and perfidy 
against his neighbour. Thus has the perversion of 
British commerce carried misery instead of happi- 
ness to one whole quarter of the globe." The hu- 
miliating confession was true. In the extent and 
atrocity of her human traffic, England had no rival. 

England may be considered as having been the 
slave merchant of the world. She engrossed two- 
thirds of the trade. She trafficked in flesh and blood 
with every country, and became the unfeeling factor 
of the slave dealers in all sections of the world. 
England furnished the French colonies with ne- 



58 

groes, and stocked the Spanish dominions by con- 
tract. It is stated on good authority, that England 
conveyed from Africa to America annually, more 
than one hundred thousand slaves. Anderson's 
History of Trade and Commerce, says, " England 
supplies her American colonies with negro slaves, 
amounting in number to above one hundred thou- 
sand every year." Wilberforce, in parliament^ re- 
minded his countrymen, that they enjoyed the largest 
share of the guilty profits of the slave trade. Mr. 
Walsh thus sums up the extent and consequences of 
the English commerce in slaves. " If we state it (the 
annual import of slaves) in round numbers, at thirty 
thousand, we shall have, for the one hundred and six 
years, three millions one hundred and eighteen thou- 
sand negroes, imported into the British possessions 
alone. But to have the whole number which Great 
Britain obtained from Africa, we must bring into 
the account those whom she procured antecedent to 
the year 1680, and after the year 1786, those whom 
she imported directly into the foreign possessions 
under her contracts, and otherwise; and also those 
who perished on her hands on the coast of Africa, 
and in the transportation. The aggregate of her 
immediate prey must have exceeded six millions; 
and we may rate the direct mortality, for which she 
is answerable, at two millions, for the century of 
the trade, preceding the abolition." Such is the 
extent of the slave trade as prosecuted by England, — 
that England which reviles America, because two 
millions of slaves thus entailed upon her, live in 
comfort and content within her borders. 

The cruelties perpetrated in such a traffic may be 
easier conceived than painted. But it may be re- 
marked, that England was, in this also, equally pre- 
eminent. It was England that fomented the wars 
among the native tribes to procure slaves. It was 
England that numbex'ed, among her chief exports to 



59 

Africa, spirits, rum, and brandy, guns, cutlasses, and 
ammunition. It was England that carried on the 
heartless commerce, with such merciless disregard of 
human life, that *^ sometimes a third or more pe- 
rished on the passage/^ 

The parliamentary report of 1789, on the slave 
trade, states, that of the slaves introduced into Ja- 
maica, from 1655 to 1787, thirty-one thousand one 
hundred and eighty-one died in the harbour from 
the noxious quality of the drugs employed in 
making them, up for sale. 

A work on English commerce, entitled " Liver- 
pool Memorandum,^' states, "that it may be pre- 
sumed, that at a moderate computation of slaves, 
who are purchased by our African merchants in a 
year, near thirty thousand die upon the voyage and 
in the seasoning/' 

Mr. Wiiberforce denounced the English slave- 
trade as " a scene of uniform, unadulterated, unso- 
phisticated wickedness." Mr. Beaufoy, in the same 
debate said, " superstition herself is less obdurate, 
less persevering, less steadfast in her cruelty than 
this cool, reflecting, deliberate, remorseless com- 
merce." Mr. Pitt said, he had no doubt that Bri- 
tish arms were placed in the hands of the Africans 
to promote universal war and desolation. Mr. Fox 
observed, that " the acts of barbarity proved upon 
the slave captains in the course of the voyages, were 
so extraordinary, that they had been attributed to 
insanity." One case was narrated in which the cap- 
tain of a British ship, in 1781, threw into the sea 
one hundred and thirty-two slaves alive, in order 
to defraud the underwriters. Another case was 
mentioned by Wiiberforce, in which six English 
vessels anchored off an African town — agreed to fire 
on the town, to force the inhabitants to sell their 
slaves at a lower price. The cruelties of the pas- 



60 

sage appear to have combined the greatest amount 
of horrors. Mr. Walsh, in referring to the mortality 
induced by this and other causes, says, "it may be 
asserted with confidence, that the British trade 
caused immediately, during the two centuries of its 
legal prosecution, the destruction of more negroes 
than have existed, altogether, in North Jimerica 
since the first settlement !^^^ 

As the awful atrocities committed by England in 
the prosecution of the slave trade are not, and cannot 
be denied nor palliated, the merit of its abolition is 
dwelt on with great triumph, as sufficient to eflace the 
remembrance of all her former offences. It may be 
doubted, whether a nation is entitled to any peculiar 
credit or commendation for abstaining, after unin- 
terrupted centuries of crime, from acts of open 
rapine. Still less is praise merited, if the reform 
tardily follows twenty years after a full conviction 
and appreciation of the guilt of the course pursued. 
But every lingering claiir. on our gratitude and re- 
spect is effaced, if it be discovered, that the act of 
justice was induced, not even by a cold and reluctant 
sense of duty, but by motives wholly sordid and 
interested. 

In the year 1787, a few individuals, whose hu- 
manity has rendered their names illustrious, brought 
the subject of the slave trade before the English 
parliament. The facts in relation to the traffic were 
collected with incredible labour, and placed, in the 
strongest light, before the house. The cause was for- 
tunate in obtaining the advocacy of several of the 
noblest spirits of the times; and was urged with all 
the force of reason and eloquence. Session after 
session the contest was renewed; but years came 
and passed, and the trade not only continued but 

* It is estimated that more than twenty millions of Afri- 
cans have been transported to America. 



61 

increased. At length, in 1807, after a twenty -years' 
war, a bill was passed providing for the abolition of 
the slave trade. 

This result was obtained by the success of the 
abolitionists in convincing the people and parliament 
of the inexpediency of the commerce. A very ex- 
tensive edition of Clarkson's Essay on the Impolicy 
of the Trade was published. In the debate, the 
advocates of abolition argued, that the trade was a 
disadvantage to England. They alleged, that it in- 
jured her commerce, restricted her manufactures, 
and ruined her seamen. They alleged also, that the 
islands were then well stocked with labourers; that 
additional importation would lessen the value of the 
slaves already obtained, and crowd the population 
of the island without benefit to the planter. They 
also urged, that the natural increase would now be 
adequate to support the number of the labouring 
population; and represented that a much more lu- 
crative commerce with Africa might be substituted 
for the slave trade. These arguments prevailed, and 
the commerce was abolished. 

Mr. Whitbread, in the final debate on the subject, 
complained that it was almost entirely a cold cal- 
culation of profit and loss. In the General Con- 
ference, held at Vienna, on the subject of the aboli- 
tion of the slave trade. Lord Castlereagh communi- 
cated authentic documents, to prove that '' abolition 
was particularly for the real advantage, and even 
indispensable for the security of the colonial coun- 
tries." In 1807, Lord Lauderdale, when urging 
abolition upon the French government, was told, 
"that England, with her colonies well stocked with 
negroes, and affording a larger produce, might abo- 
lish the tradewithout inconvenience; but that France, 
with colonies ill-stocked, and deficient in produce, 
could not abolish it without conceding to England 
6 



62 

the greatest advantages, and sustaining a proportion- 
ate loss." The Spanish minister, in answer to the 
same application, said to Lord Castlereagh : " If the 
Spanish colonies of America were, as to the supply 
of negroes, in the same state as the English colonies, 
his Catholic majesty would not hesitate a moment in 
decreeing immediate abolition; but the question 
having been before the British parliament from 1788 
to 1807, the English traders and planters had full 
time to make extraordinary purchases of slaves; 
and, in fact, they did so. This was proved by the 
case of Jamaica, which in 1787 had only 250,000; 
whereas, at the period of the abolition, in 1807, she 
possessed 400,000." Mr. Wilberforce, as late as 
1818, in urging a grant to Spain, in consideration of 
abolishing the trade, did it on the ground of the 
commercial advantages accruing to great Britain, by 
opening the continent of Africa to British industry. 
It is unnecessary to multiply proofs, that the English 
government, as it was induced by avarice to sanction 
the trade for centuries, was at length induced by 
the same motive, under a change of circumstances, 
to abolish it. 

The reader has no doubt seen, in his time, men 
who have devoted the greenness and worth of their 
lives to profligacy; who have laughed at every re- 
straint, overthrown and trampled upon every bar- 
rier which separated them from lawless enjoyment, 
and, in the pursuit of pleasure, or fortune, or both, 
have rushed madly into the most guilty and sordid 
excesses. He has perhaps seen these same men, when 
the chill of age came upon them — when their ears 
could no longer catch the tones of the syren voice, 
nor their benumbed flesh thrill to the touch of plea- 
sure — when sin was stripped of its attraction, and 
the sinners incapable of gratification — smooth their 
faces into the demureness of sanctity, expend their 
ill-gotten gains in the erection of churches, and 



63 

essay to compensate, by the zeal of their piety, for its 
insincerity and selfishness. Such men are seen daily; 
but, though as remarkable for their intolerance as 
their zeal — though bitter in their denunciation of 
those vices which they cherished while they could, 
and those pleasures which they followed until they 
ceased to please — yet we have never found one so 
fortunate as to persuade the public to admire or re- 
spect that sanctity — 

" Which doth but skin and film the ulcerous part, 
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within. 
Infects unseen." 

It remains to be seen, how far the world will re- 
spect the sincerity of a nation that surpassed all 
others in the slave traffic, until that traffic ceased to 
be profitable to her; and then, when constrained to 
reform, becomes outrageous in her sanctity, and 
abusive in her censures of others, even when the 
offences which she denounces, were, in fact, perpe- 
trated, not by those whom she presumes to rebuke, 
hut by herself alone. 

It must not be supposed, because the government 
of Great Britain found it expedient to abolish the 
slave trade, that the English people abandoned it. 
On the contrary, the English themselves have af- 
forded us ample proofs of the extent of their illicit 
commerce in slaves since the passage of the act of 
abolition. 

The Report of the London African Institution, of 
1809, states, that the slave merchants had succeeded 
in eluding the provisions of the act. The report of 
1810 says: — ''It has been discovered that, in defi- 
ance of all the penalties imposed by the act of Par- 
liament, vessels under foreign flags have been fitted 
out in the ports of Liverpool and London, for the 
purpose of carrying slaves from Africa to the Spanish 



64 

and Portuguese settlements in America.'^ The re- 
port proceeds to state, that persons of high consider- 
ation were implicated in this illicit traffic. The re- 
port of 1810 states, that ^« accounts from various 
quarters concur with certain judicial proceedings 
which have taken place in this country, to prove 
that a very considerable trade in slaves has been 
carried on of late, and a large portion of it by means 
of the capital and credit of British subjects." 
" There is a large class of contraband slave ships 
fitted out, chiefly in London or Liverpool, destined 
to the coast of Africa." The report of 1812 esti- 
mates the amount of this illicit commerce at from 
70,000 to 80,000 slaves during the year 1810. The 
reports of 1813-14 reaffirm the same facts, and 
in addition, complain of a new branch of trade 
opened by the British between Egypt and Malta. 
It also describes the condition of the slaves in seve- 
ral of the new British conquests as wretched in the 
extreme; and while it denounces the slave trade 
on the north coast of Africa, complains of the ex- 
portation of British arms and gunpowder to that 
continent. In 1815, Mr. Barham stated in Parlia- 
ment, that " it was a well known fact, that a large 
British capital was employed in British ships, in the 
slave trade." In 1818, Lord Castlereagh said, that 
*^in numherless instances, he was sorry to say, it 
had come to his knowledge, that British subjects 
were indirectly and largely engaged in the slave 
trade." The report of the African Institution for 
1815, affirmed that 20,000 negroes had been yearly 
smuggled into the English colonies. The com- 
merce thus extensively but illicitly carried on, 
though checked by the recent act of abolition, is no 
doubt still prosecuted with the colonies of other 
European nations, and will probably be continued 
so long as it proves profitable. England, at least, 
will never be entitled to praise for its termination, 



65 

In the act referred to, by which slavery was abolish- 
ed in the English colonies, we can see nothing in- 
consistent with the spirit always exhibited by the 
British government. Wholly unmindful, not only of 
the interests, but of the rights of her colonies, she has 
robbed them of a property, the legitimacy of which 
she recognised for centuries. She thrust — -forced a 
slave population upon them, notwithstanding their 
remonstrances, and did so, not because she conceived 
such a population valuable to the colonies, but be- 
cause the traffic was "beneficial to the mother coun- 
try.'' Having exhausted this source of gain, and 
persuaded herself that her colonies would, if slavery 
were abolished, afford an outlet for her surplus popu- 
lation, she does not scruple to rifle her own subjects, 
throw the colonies into confusion, and endanger the 
lives, as she has violated the rights, of the planters 
of the West Indies. That this policy has been 
adopted under the momentary sway of ignorant 
fanaticism may be conceded; but fanaticism would 
never have controlled the policy of Britain, had it 
not appealed to her avarice, and, by captivating but 
hollow representations of the superiority of free 
labour, persuaded her that the measure would render 
the colonies more valuable to the mistress country. 
The profits realized by Great Britain in the slave 
trade may well enable her to aflford a few millions 
of compensation to the plundered planters, and the 
increased revenue expected from the colonies will, 
it is expected, amply justify this investment. Great 
Britain has not, however, upon all occasions, found 
her system of colonial wrong and exaction to answer 
her expectations. The time has not yet arrived to 
write the history of West India abolition, but the 
system has sufficiently developed itself to enable us 
to predict, with confidence, loss to the mother coun- 
try — ruin to the colonies. 
6* 



CHAPTER VII. 



Condition of Slaves in the United States. 

The extent of slavery in the different slave-hold- 
ing states of this union, may be seen by the follow- 
ing table, digested from the census of 1830. 





Whites. 


Free 
cord. 


Slaves. 


Total 
col'd. 


Total. 


Maryland, 


291,093 


52,912 


102,873 


155,820 


446,913 


Virginia, 


694,270 


47,348 


469,757 


517,105 


1,211,375 


North Carolina, 


472,843 


19,543 


245,601 


265,444 


737,987 


South Carolina, 


257,863 


7,921 


315,401 


323,322 


518,185 


Georgia, 


296,806 


2,486 


217,531 


220,017 


516,823 


.- , 5 North, 
Alabama, ^ g^^^^j^^ 


81,173 


422 


44,130 


44,552 


125,725 


109,233 


1,150 


73,419 


74,569 


183,802 


Mississippi, 


114,795 


569 


25,091 


25,660 


140,455 


Kentucky, 


517,787 


4,917 


165,213 


170,130 


687,917 


Louisiana, 


89,291 


16,710 


109,588 


126,298 


215,589 


Tennessee, 


535,748 


4,555 


141,603 


146,158 


681,906 


Missouri, 


114,795 


569 


25,091 


25,660 


140,455 


District of Columbia, 


27,647 


6,093 


6,058 


12,151 


39,868 


Missouri, 












— ■ Arkansaw, 


25,671 


141 


4,576 


4,717 


30,388 


Florida, 


18,375 


844 


15,501 


16,345 


34,720 



The states in which slavery prevails, have been 
distinguished for their affluence. Notwithstanding 
the policy of the national government has borne 
heavily upon the South, notwithstanding the occa- 
sional depression of her staples, and the proverbially 
unfortunate pecuniary habits of her citizens, that 
portion of the union may still be regarded as pecu- 



67 

liarly favoured. The slave-labour of the South has 
thus far practically disproved the theories of the 
North; and demonstrated that the institution of slave- 
ry, whatever objections may be alleged against it, is 
not calculated to diminish the national wealth, or re- 
tard the national prosperity. It will be seen hereafter, 
that the South pays nearly one-third of the revenue 
of the government; and of the one hundred millions 
of dollars annual exports sent from the country, 
nine-tenths are raised by the South. Of the pro- 
ductiveness of slave-labour, who can, after a know- 
ledge of these facts, affect a doubt? The North, as 
well as the South, is enriched by that labour; and 
should any disastrous occurrences disturb the insti- 
tutions of the South, not only the whites and negroes 
of the slave-holding states would sink into poverty 
and suffering, but the decayed manufactures, shrunken 
commerce, and ruined prosperity of the North, would 
show how near and vital is the connexion of the dif- 
ferent sections of our common country. 

Every country must have its labourers, men who 
are willing to be directed by the mind and capital 
of others, and to undergo, in consideration of sup- 
port, the physical toil requisite for the attainment 
of tlie goods of life. In the North, this labour is 
done by the poor; in the South, by the negro. In 
both, the labourer is forced to endure the privations 
of his condition in life. In the North, not only is 
his toil severe, but poverty and anxiety attend him 
in his humble path in life. His family must be 
sustained; his wife attended in sickness; his chil- 
dren supported in youth. His means are often ina- 
dequate to his wants. He is bowed down by the 
consciousness of inequality, and haunted by the fear 
of the prison. Incertitude and anxiety are with him 
each hour of his life; and when sickness or age steals 
upon him, it often finds him without resources or 
hope. Thus is he dogged through life by poverty. 



68 

fear, humiliation and oppression (for the title of 
freeman does not protect the poor from oppression) 
and dies with the unhappy consciousness that for 
his children is reserved the same lot of wretched- 
ness. The labourer of the South knows none of 
these evils. He is scarcely acquainted with the 
meaning of the word care. He never suffers from 
inordinate labour — he never sickens from unwhole- 
some food. No fear of want disturbs his slumbers. 
Hunger and cold are strangers to him; and in sick- 
ness or age he knows that he has a protector and a 
friend able and willing to shield him from suffering. 
His pleasures are such as his nature enjoys, and are 
unrestricted. He enjoys all the privileges which his 
simple heart craves, and which are wholesome for 
him. Thus protected from all the other has to fear, 
and secured in the enjoyment of all he desires — he 
is as happy as circumstances can render him. 

We are aware that certain pseudo philanthropists 
affect great concern for the benighted state of the 
negro, and condemn the enactments which, in some 
of the states, discourage his education. We may be 
permitted to remark, that, but for the intrusive and 
intriguing interference of pragmatical fanatics, such 
precautionary enactments would never have been 
necessary. When such foes are abroad, industrious 
in scattering the seeds of insurrection, it becomes 
necessary to close every avenue by which they may 
operate upon the slaves. It becomes necessary to 
check or turn aside, the stream, which instead of 
flowing healthfully upon the negro, is polluted and 
poisoned by the abolitionists, and rendered the 
source of discontent and excitement. Education, 
thus perverted, would become equally dangerous to 
the master and the slave: and while fanaticism con- 
tinue, its war upon the South, the measures of ne- 
cessary precaution and defence must be continued. 

The situation of the slave is, in every particular, 



69 

incompatible with the cultivation of his mind. It 
would not only unfit him for his station in life, 
and prepare him for insurrection, but would be 
found wholly impracticable in the performance of 
the duties of a labourer. However, those who re- 
gard the absence of education in the negro with 
such peculiar compassion, would do well to assure 
themselves that the free blacks of the North, and 
even a large class of the white labourers, are, in this 
particular, superior to him. The charity of these 
fanatics is generally of so expanded and ambitious a 
character, that it overlooks worthy objects of bene- 
volence at their feet, to light upon some scheme of 
thwart and ill-omened philanthropy abroad. 

The absence of science is no misfortune to the 
slave. He is averse to study; and, with every ad- 
vantage, seldom makes sufficient progress to render 
education a source of pleasure or profit to him. 
Inert and unintellectual, he exhibits no craving for 
knowledge: and prefers, in his hours of recreation, 
indulgence in his rustic pleasures to the pursuit of 
intellectual improvement. It has been a question, 
whether the pains or enjoyments of a cultivated 
mind preponderate. The extended expanse of the 
mind, if it is opened to more of the sunshine of 
heaven, is exposed also to more of its gloom; and 
as, in this life, our sky is more frequently clouded 
than clear, the prerogative, however ennobling, is 
perhaps a source of more anxiety than enjoyment. 
Be this as it may, the negro never suffers from the 
thirst for knowledge. Voluptuous and indolent, he 
knows few but animal pleasures; is incapable of 
appreciating the pride and pleasure of conscious in- 
tellectual refinement; and passes through existence, 
perhaps with few of the white man's mental enjoy- 
ments, but certainly with still fewer of his harass- 
ins: cares and anxieties. The dance beneath the 



70 

shade surpasses, for him, the groves of the academy; 
and the simple tones of the banjo have charms which 
even the lyre of Phoebus could not rival. 

Misguided or malevolent writers have endea- 
voured to produce an impression in the North that 
the slaves of the South are debarred the privilege of 
public worship. So far is this statement from being 
based on truth, that it may be doubted whether the 
free blacks in the North, under the immediate wing 
of the abolitionists, enjoy the same religious advan- 
tages, or profit by them to the same extent. Clergy- 
men are encouraged by the citizens of the Southern 
states to visit and preach to their slaves; and the 
cause of religion was, and unless the mad course of 
the abolitionists has checked it, still is, rapidly ad- 
vancing in the South. The clergy of the South are 
equally distinguished for their zeal and ability; and 
labour, with commendable activity, in the vineyard 
thus opened to them. The absence of all temporal 
cares in the mind of the slave, fits him to receive 
religious impressions; and may, perhaps, account 
for the success of the ministry in their efforts among 
that portion of our population. Of the numerous 
and exemplary clergy of the South, not a man can 
be found willing to sanction the course of the North- 
ern fanatics, to represent the condition of the slaves 
in an unfavourable light, or to breathe a word to 
countenance the calumnies of the abolitionists. They 
imitate the example of our blessed Saviour, who, 
instead of preaching abolition to the slaves, went 
among them breathing the spirit of humility and 
peace, and directing them to '' render unto Caesar 
the things that are Caesar's." When the soi disant 
philanthropists do likewise, they will cease to be 
objects of alarm and abhorrence to the people whose 
tranquillity they have so recklessly endangered. 

Since the recent manifestations of a determination 



71 

on the part of the abolitionists to break up the foun- 
tains of the great deep of public order — to throw 
the whole organization of southern society into 
chaos— light the torch of rapine and whet the knife 
of murder — it has become necessary for the South 
to guard, with sleepless vigilance, every channel 
through which their poison might be disseminated. 
Some of the fanatics, more mutinous than their bre- 
thren, have visited the South, in the abused charac- 
ter of clergymen, and brought reproach upon the 
holy office, by using it for the worst purposes. 
These reverend preachers of insurrection and mur- 
der have excited some distrust at the South; and the 
planters are Avisely determined to be more careful 
hereafter. Wandering vagabonds will therefore find 
it difficult to approach and poison the minds of the 
slaves in clerical costume; or, should they succeed, 
will probably discover, to their surprise, that the 
crime of inciting the ignorant negro to murder, is 
punished at the South quite as summarily and se- 
verely, when committed in a black coat, as in one 
of a less reverend and awe-exciting hue. But how- 
ever watchful necessity may render the Southron, 
the respectable and pure-hearted clergyman will 
always receive from him, in the performance of his 
holy duties among the slave population, protection, 
encouragement and support. Christianity truly 
taught and sincerely cherished, cannot fail to render 
the slave population -^lore tranquil and happy in 
themselves, and more valuable to their masters. Had 
the planter, therefore, no higher motive, his own 
obvious interests would constrain him to encourage 
and aid the means by which his slaves are rendered 
quiet, moral, and industrious. 

The slaves of the South are protected from abuse 
or wrong by liberal laws, justly administered. Im- 
proper punishment, under-feeding or over-working, 



72 

are prevented by enactments, which, should any 
master incur their penalties, effectually vindicate the 
cause of justice. The laws protect the slave as fully 
as the white man: they go further, and, as the slave 
is supposed to be completely dependent upon his 
master, they require that he should be supplied with 
the necessaries and comforts of his station, and 
treated with unvarying kindness. In some of the 
states it has, indeed, been necessary to pass rigid 
police laws to protect the country from insurrections; 
but these laws remain a dead letter, until the inter- 
ference of insidious and evil men excites and stirs up 
the slaves, and renders caution and severity indispen- 
sable for the safety of the master. When abolition- 
ists make the application of these laws necessary, it 
is they, and they alone, who are the authors of the 
restraint placed upon the slaves. 

The slave-holders of this country have always 
been celebrated for their kindness to their depend- 
ants. The following passages in Beverley's History 
of Virginia, dated 1720, shows the manner in which, 
even at that early period, the slaves were treated. 
" It hath been so represented to the common people 
of England, as to make them believe that the ser- 
vants in Virginia are made to draw in carts, and 
plough as the oxen do in England, and that the coun- 
try turns all people black who go to live there; with 
other such prodigious phantasms." "I can assure, 
with great truth, that, generally, the slaves in Vir- 
ginia are not worked near so hard, nor so many 
hours in a day as the husbandmen and day-labour- 
ers in England; and that no people more abhor the 
thoughts of cruel usage to servants than do Virgi- 
nians." The treatment of slaves in this country, 
always lenient, has improved since the revolution. 
The apprehensions which existed while the slave 
trade poured its thousands upon our shores, have 



73 



been removed by its abolition; the whites also have 
become more numerous, and bear a much larger pro- 
portion to the slaves; and a sense of security is the 
consequence which has operated greatly to soften 
the system of the master, and ameliorate^he condT 
ion of the slave The division of the negro popu- 
lation into smaller masses, has, by bringing them 
nearer to the master, connected them with his family 
associations and feelings; while the advance of libe- 
ral and humane feelings has given to the relation of 
master and slave often the most affectionate charac- 
ter, rhe editor of the Encyclopoedia Americana 
remarks, " We believe it is gLer^ally admitted thai 
the slave is nowhere better treated than in the slave- 
holding states of this union." Mr. Walsh, in his 
Appeal gives the following description of the treat- 
ment of slaves m the South. "The master who 
would deprive his negro of his pecidium—ih^ pro- 
duce of his poultry-house, or his little garden; who 
should force him to work on holidays or at night • 
who should deny him the common recreations, or 
leave him without shelter or provision in his old 
age, would incur the aversion of the community 
and raise obstacles to the advancement of his own 
interest and external aims." 

The same author says, '' American negro-slaver v 
IS almost wholly free from two of the grievances 
which characterize that of the West Indies-^under 
Jeeding and over working. With regard to the 
great article of food, the American negroes are, 
assuredly, better supplied than the free labourers of 
most parts of Europe. Flesh meat is not attainable 
lor the latter in the same quantity which is com- 
monly given to the first; it would seem not to be 
attainable at all for the poorer classes of Great Bri- 
tain and Ireland. In respect to clothing and lodging 
the comparison would give nearly the same result 



74 

On the score of fuel, the want of which occasions so 
much suffering in particular counties of Great Bri- 
tain, and, as to the point of labour, also, the advan- 
tage is greatly on the side of the American negro. 
I cannot here enter into the details of the system, 
upon which they are worked on the Southern plan- 
tations; but I can say of it, that it involves nothing 
like the same intensity, duration, or continuity of 
exertion, which would appear to be indispensable in 
Great Britain, in almost all the lower walks of me- 
chanical industry, for the mere support of animal 
life." 

Professor Dew, from whose invaluable work on 
this subject we have already quoted, speaks as fol- 
lows of the usage of the slaves: — ^' In the debate in 
the Virginia legislature, no speaker insinuated eyen, 
we believe, that the slaves in Virginia w^ere not 
treated kindly; and all, too, agreed that they were 
most abundantly fed; and we have no doubt but that 
they form the happiest portion of our society. A 
merrier being does not exist on the face of the globe, 
than the negro slave of the United States. Even 
Captain Hall himself, with his ^ thick crust of pre- 
judice,' is obliged to allow that they are happy and 
contented, and the master much less cruel than is 
generally imagined." 

Mr. Dew remarks that we are all too prone to make 
self the standard by which we measure the condition 
of the slaves; and adds, with equal justice and elo- 
quence: — <^We might rather die than be the ob- 
scure slave that waits at our back — our education 
and our habits generate an ambition that makes us 
aspire at something loftier — and disposes us to look 
upon the slave as unsusceptible of happiness in his 
humble sphere, when he may indeed be much hap- 
pier than we are, and have his ambition too; but his 
ambition is to excel all his other slaves in the per- 



75 

formance of his servile duties— to please and gratify 
his master — and to command the praise of all who 
witness his exertions. Let the wily philanthropist 
but come and whisper into the ear of such a slave 
that his situation is degrading and his lot a misera- 
ble one— let him but light up the dungeon in which 
he persuades the slave that he is caged — and that 
moment, like the serpent that entered the garden of 
Eden, he destroys his happiness and his usefulness." 

We add the following testimony of T. Flint, Esq., 
a gifted native of New England, and from education^ 
habit, and feeling, averse to the institution of slavery. 
Of the fidelity of his statements, no one, we flatter 
ourselves, will hazard a doubt. His opportunities 
for acquiring, from personal observation, a know- 
ledge of slavery, have been unlimited; and from his 
established reputation as a sagacious and accurate 
observer, and a writer of ability and character, his 
authority must be regarded as entitled to great con- 
sideration. 

" We can pronounce, from what we consider a 
thorough knowledge of the subject, that the condi- 
tion of the slaves here,* the treatment which they 
receive, and the character of their masters, have been 
much misrepresented in the non-slave-holding states. 
We pretend to none but historical knowledge of 
the state of things which has existed here in past 
time. At present, we are persuaded, there are but 
few of those brutal and cruel masters which the 
greatest portion of the planters were formerly sup- 
posed to be. The masters now study popularity 
with their slaves. — There is now no part of the 
slave-holding country in the Southwest, where it 
would not be a deep stain on the moral character to 

* In Louisiana, one of the most rigid states, in the govern- 
ment of her slaves, in the Union. 



76 

be generally reputed a cruel master. In many plan- 
tations no punishment is inflicted except after a trial 
by a jury, composed of the fellow servants of the 
party accused. Festival prizes and rewards are in- 
stituted, as stimulants to exertion, and compensa- 
tions for superior accomplishments of labour. They 
are generally well fed, and well clothed, and that 
not by an arbitrary award, which might vary with 
the feelings of the master, but by a periodical appor- 
tionment, like the distributed rations of soldiers, of 
what has been experimented to be sufficient to ren- 
der them comfortable. Considerable attention is 
paid to their quarters, and most of them comfortably 
lodged and housed. Nor are they destitute, as has 
been supposed, of any legal protection coming be- 
tween them and the cupidity and cruelty of their 
masters. The code noir of Louisiana is a curious 
collection of statutes, drawn partly from French and 
Spanish law and usage, and partly from the customs 
of the islands, and usages which have grown out of 
the peculiar circumstances of Louisiana while a 
colony. It has the aspect, it must be admitted, of 
being formed rather for the advantage of the master 
than the servant, for it prescribes an unlimited ho- 
mage and obedience to the former. It makes a mis- 
demeanor on his part towards his master a very 
different offence from a wanton abuse of power to- 
wards the servant.* But, at the same time, it de- 
fines crimes that the master can commit in relation 
to the slave: and prescribes the mode of trial, and 
the kind and degree of punishment. It constitutes 
unnecessary correction, maiming, and murder, pun- 
ishable offences in the master. It is very minute in 
prescribing the number of hours which the master 

* Such a distinction is prompted by the dangers arising 
from the peculiar position of the slave, and the necessity of 
greater restraint and security. 



77 

may lawfully exact to be employed in labour, and 
the number of hours which he must allow his slave 
for meal-times and for rest. It prescribes the time 
and extent of his holidays. In short, it settles with 
minuteness and detail, the whole circle of relations 
between master and slave, defining and prescribing 
what the former may, and may not, exact of the 
latter. Yet after all these minute provisions, the 
slave finds the chief alleviation of his hard condi- 
tion, and his best security against cruel treatment, 
and his most valid bond for kind and proper deport- 
ment towards him, in the increasing light, human- 
ity and force of public opinion. That the slave is 
in the general circuTnstances of his condition, as 
happy as this relation ivill admit of his being, is 



* It can scarcely be necessary to swell the evidences of a 
fact, which every intelligent and candid man who has in- 
spected for himself the domestic relations of the Southern 
planter, will readily admit. We will, however, add the fol- 
lowing. Mr. Noah, of New York, remarks, in relation to 
the slave population of the South: " We speak advisedly, for 
we have studied the condition of the whites and blacks mi- 
nutely, and can freely say, that we would infinitely prefer to 
be a black slave in Carolina, of Virginia, or Cuba, or Barba- 
does, to the emaciated and haggard wretches who people the 
workshops of Birmingham and Manchester, or the poor, 
shiftless, dissolute free negroes who live in our Northern 
states." The able editor of the Courier and Enquirer, thus 
describes the slaves of the South, before the " pernicious 
labours of the abolitionist destroyed the confidence of the 
master, and with it, the comfort of the slave." " We speak 
from our own experience, when we say, they were the gay- 
est, the most contented, and the most comfortable race of 
labouring people that ever came under our observation ; for, 
as to the pictures and representations which the abolitionists 
are daily putting forth, of chains, stripes, oppression, and 
cruelty, we pronounce them wilful and malicious falsehoods, 
invented to impose upon the world, and stimulate the slaves 
to insurrection and murder." 

7* 



78 

Were there no other evidences of the kindness 
with which the Southern slaves are treated, and the 
comfort in which they live, it would be sufficient to 
direct the attention of the reader to the rapidity of 
their increase. This, at least, is a proof of the pros- 
perous state of the negro, which will not be contest- 
ed. In the British West Indies, the slave population 
has required, it is said, renewal every fifteen years: 
in this country, the natural increase is nearly equal 
to that of the' whites. In England and Wales, the 
population has nearly doubled in the last hundred 
years; one fourth of that time is sufficient for the 
duplication of our Southern negroes. These facts 
will not be denied, and cannot be explained away. 
They demonstrate that the condition of the Ameri- 
can negro is, at least, not one of physical suffering. 

In conclusion, we may remark, that there is rea- 
son to doubt whether any country comprises a la- 
bouring people better clothed, fed and treated than 
the slave population of the South — a population 
with less discontent and fewer causes calculated to 
excite it. Their intellectual inferiority, the absence 
of ambition in their character, their improvidence 
and want of a master to direct and sustain them, 
and the peculiar adaptation of their physical consti- 
tution to labour in a Southern climate, all combine 
to render their present the best possible condition 
in which they can be placed; while the kindness 
and attention of their masters make that condition 
still more comfortable and happy. It is an error to 
suppose that the blacks do not regard the kindness 
of their masters with gratitude and affection. They 
look up to their liberal and generous masters, and 
their amiable mistresses, with a feeling absolutely 
fond and filial. They take pleasure in repaying 
their care with every service in their power; and, 
instead of desiring an opportunity to dissolve the 



79 

connexion between tliem, would, in many cases, be 
found ready to die in defence of the families in 
which they are so kindly protected and cherished. 
With these views of the Southern population, how- 
sinister and fiendlike appears that intermeddling 
spirit which seeks to render the poor slave discon- 
tented — to transform his nature into that of a re- 
vengeful and sanguinary demon, thirsting for the 
blood of his protectors, anxious to redden the skies 
of his clime with the glare of conflagration, and dye 
the soil he has so long and peacefully tilled with the 
hue of murder. Is it strange that the proceedings 
of such men are regarded, by every reflecting and 
benevolent mind, with horror?"* 

* " In this country it has been argued," said the Rev. Mr. 
Tracy, in a sermon before the Vermont Colonization Society, 
" that the world belongs to all men equally, and labour be- 
longs to those who perform it, are conclusions as inevitable, 
as that a man*s right hand is his own." And on these 
grounds, a convention was proposed and publicly urged in 
the state of New York, in the year 1S30, which should 
order, 

An immediate abolition of all debts; 

An inventory of all real and personal property within the 
state; 

A census of all the inhabitants, white or black; 

An equal division of all the property, real and personal, 
among such citizens indiscriminately, as have arrived at the 
age of eighteen, without regard to colour; 

An apportionment of a full share to every citizen, as he 
shall hereafter arrive at the age of eighteen; 

The abolition of all interest on money, and the right of 
making wills. 

Do you say, there is no danger that men will reason thusl 1 
answer, men have thus reasoned, and been confident in their 
reasonings. They have published them, with the intention 
of inducing nations to adopt them. The party, from one of 
whose organs the last extract was taken, proposeil to have 
20,000 followers in the city oi New York alone, and nomi- 
nated its candidate for the Presidency of the United States, 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Slavery considered. — The right of man to hold 
his felloiv-man in bondage. 

With all the clamour made by the abolitionists, 
in relation to ^^free discussion," there is nothing 
which they so studiously avoid. They seldom, if 
ever, resort to candid or manly argument. They 
appeal to settled prejudices; and, by applying ab- 
stract but cherished axioms, without reference to 
consequences, they urge a course which could never 
bear the test of cool and practical examination. It 
is the misfortune of our country that we reason from 
abstractions. We establish the principle that all men 
are created free and equal; and following it out, with- 
out regard to consequences, often infer that a com- 
munity of goods is required by a rigid respect for 
the rights of man. It was this delusion, this prone- 
ness to rush recklessly on in the course marked out 
by some dreamy abstraction, which plunged revo- 
lutionary France into the reign of terror. Her 
principles were generally sound; but pushed to 
extremes, and followed without regard to practical 
results, they led to consequences at which the world 
even now turns pale. It was the prevalence of the 
spirit alluded to, which induced the French policy 
towards St. Domingo; and not only lost that colony 
to France and to the world, but rendered it a Phle- 
gethon, in which evil spirits held, for years, their 
carnival of blood. Let our people profit by their 



81 

experience. Let them rely rather on common sense, 
practically applied, than on the misty abstractions of 
fanatical enthusiasts. 

It should be distinctly understood, that while the 
South acknowledges no accountability to any power 
under heaven for her course or sentiments on the 
subject of slavery, she freely avows her conviction 
of her right to hold the negroes in bondage, and her 
persuasion that the domestic slavery of that section 
of our country, is not a moral or political evil. 
These sentiments are the result of a full and general 
investigation of the subject: and were the people of 
the North equally well acquainted with it, they 
wpuld probably subscribe to the opinions of the 
South. The original importation of the African is 
regarded by us as a moral wrong, because associated 
with acts of violence and cruelty, which nothing 
can justify. But of the justice, necessity, and advan- 
tages of the institution, as now entailed upon the 
South, we cannot, after an examination of the sub- 
ject, feel a doubt. To the negro himself, we con- 
sider it no calamity. He is happier here than on 
the shores of his own degraded, savage, and most 
unhappy country — or rather the country of his fa- 
thers. He is happier, also, as a slave, than he could 
be as a freeman. This is the result of the peculiari- 
ties of his character; and will, we trust, be demon- 
strated in the course of this work to the satisfaction 
of the reader. It may be said that the slave-holders 
have no right to constitute themselves the tribunal 
for the decision of this question. If we do not judge 
for ourselves, of the propriety of our own conduct, 
who shall judge for us? But were we, or rather the 
people of the South, not immediately interested in 
the determination of the question, the ignorance, 
childlike simplicity and acknowledged incapacity of 
the blacks, would justify their masters in deciding 



82 

on the course which their welfare, as well as that of 
the whites, rendered necessary. 

The abolitionists deny the right of the people of 
the South, under any circumstances, to hold their 
fellow men in bondage. Upon what grounds is this 
position assumed? If the master is guilty of a wrong, 
it becomes his accusers to give some evidence of his 
crime. It is their duty to prove that an institution, 
which has existed almost from the creation of the 
world to the present time, which has been en- 
couraged by the best men of the most enlightened 
ages, and which has met the sanction of the Highest 
— has become, since these moral luminaries arose 
upon the world, guilty and calamitous. It will be 
found difficult to obtain a direct and rational answer 
to so plain a demand. They deal wholly in rheto- 
rical flourishes; and if they reply at all, will tell us 
that the negro slave should not be a slave, because 
" he was created free.^' The fact is exactly the re- 
verse. He comes into the world a slave. Nay, we 
might go further, and assert that nature, in her ear- 
liest developments, exhibits the necessity of recip- 
rocal command and protection. We are all, in early 
life, vslaves; the laws of necessity and nature, as well 
as those of the land, constitute us bond, and we re- 
main so until we have passed through nearly one- 
third of our earthly pilgrimage. Who, then, will 
pretend to assert that the negro should not be a 
slave because he is born free? But they tell us — 
" it is the will of God that he should be free." It is 
somewhat strange, that the will of God, in this 
point, has never been expressed until it came from 
the oracular mouths of the abolitionists. Such mani- 
festations of the divine will never took place among 
the Jews, where slavery was universal, nor among 
the nations to which the disciples of our Saviour 
preached — nations which were overrun with slaves. 



83 

The will and desire of God is the welfare of the 
species. If negro slavery in the South be incon- 
sistent with the happiness of the human family, the 
argument may apply: but if, as we confidently assert, 
its existence is not at war with the well-being of the 
greatest number of those interested, it is wholly 
justifiable. And if, to go one step further, the mea- 
sures of abolition, projected by the fanatics, are 
calculated to result in consequences calamitous to 
the race, they are, notwithstanding their ostenta- 
tious and obtrusive piety, guilty, in the face of hea- 
ven and earth, of crimes of the darkest and deepest 
crimson. 

The phrase which occurs in the Declaration of 
American Independence — " all men are created free 
and equal" — is perpetually upon the lips of the abo- 
litionist, to sanction his violation of the rights of the 
South. The following extract from a speech, deli- 
vered at the late public meeting in Philadeli^hia, by 
Mr. J. R. Burden, formerly Speaker of the Senate, 
and an early, fervent, and fearless advocate of the 
rights of the slave-holder, admirably illustrates the 
perversion and desecration of that celebrated sen- 
tence of Jefferson. 

" On the 4th of July, 1776, in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of this place, the Declaration of Independ- 
ence was made. From it the advocates of black 
emancipation take their text, ^ All men are created 
free and equal,' &c. The construction they put upon 
it is unlimited. Let us examine the subject care- 
fully. Did the framers of the Declaration, the re- 
presentatives of the people, intend to declare that 
domestic slavery was incompatible with the freedom 
of the colonies? If they did not, their words are of 
no use in the defence of negro emancipation. If 
they did, ichy were not all the slaves then eman- 
cipated? 



84 

"In 1781, the 'Articles of Confederation' were 
ratified. Domestic slavery^still existed. Why did 
it exist, if the construction of the abolitionists be 
correct ? 

" The people of the United States, in order to form 
a more perfect union and secure the blessings of li- 
berty, established the constitution in 1787. Do- 
mestic slavery still existed. No constitution could 
have been formed, had emancipation been persisted 
in. No union could have been perfected, if theorists 
and dreamers had determined to deprive the slave- 
holding states of their property. 

" The constitution was adopted j the union was esta- 
blished; the world looked on it with admiration; yet 
it did not prohibit domestic slavery. So far from it, 
one of its main features, that of representation, was 
based upon it. Further, it declared that the traffic 
should not he prohibited by Congress prior to the 
year 1808. Perhaps the framersof the constitution 
thought that, by that period, the increased popula- 
tion of the blacks, would supersede the necessity of 
importation. 

'< We hear, in our day, much prating about liberty 
and philanthropy. The signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, and the framers of the constitu- 
tion, were quite as conversant with the rights of 
man, as the best of us; they had as much philan- 
thropy; and, if you will have it, as much Chris- 
tianity as we profess to have. They possessed the 
confidence of the people, and deserved it; they 
passed through the times that tried men's souls; 
and, without the fear, favour, or affection of power, 
but in the spirit of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, 
perfected a union as imperishable as the globe we 
inhabit. Shall it be said that such men put a blot 
and a stain upon our country ? — So much for the 
text of emancipation!" 



85 

We have already shown, that slavery originated 
in the practice of sparing and enslaving captives 
taken in war. Judge Blackstone, whose argument 
on this subject is triumphantly cited by the aboli- 
tionists, denies the right to make prisoners of war 
slaves; for, he says, we have no right to enslave, un- 
less we had the right to kill; and we had no right to 
kill, unless " in cases of absolute necessity for self- 
defence; and it is plain this absolute necessity did 
not subsist, since the victor did not actually kill 
him, but made him prisoner." (See chap. 6, on 
Civil Government.) Professor Dew, in his work 
on slavery, furnishes the following conclusive refu- 
tation of Blackstone's position. " Upon this we 
proceed to remark: — 1st. That Judge Blackstone 
here speaks of slavery in its pure unmitigated form, 
whereby an unlimited power is given to the master 
over the life and fortune of the slave. Slavery 
scarcely exists any where in this form, and if it did, 
it would be a continuance of a state of war, as Ros- 
seau justly observes, between the captive and the 
captor. Again : Blackstone, in his argument on this 
subject, seems to misunderstand the grounds upon 
which civilians place the justification of slavery, as 
arising from the laws of war. It is well known, 
that most of the horrors of war spring from the 
principle of retaliation, and not, as Blackstone sup- 
poses, universally from ' absolute necessity.' " 

It seems, that almost every distinguished writer 
on the jus gentium, has admitted the justice of 
slavery, under certain circumstances. Grotius says 
that, as the law of nature permits prisoners of war 
to be killed, so the same law has introduced the 
right of making them slaves, that the captors, in 
view of the benefits arising from the labour or sale 
of their prisoners, might be induced to spare them. 
Puffendorf speaks of slavery as established *^by the 
8 



86 

free consent of the opposing parties." Rutherford, 
in his Institutes, says, " the law of nations will allow 
those who are prisoners to be made slaves by the 
nation which takes them." Other authors confirm 
the same rule. — Yattel asks, *'are prisoners of war to 
be made slaves?" and answers, *' yes; in cases which 
give a right to kill them." Locke says, "he, to whom 
a prisoner has forfeited his life, may, when he has 
him in his power, delay to take it, and make use of 
him to his own service, and he does him no injury 
by it." 

But whatever may have been the origin of slavery 
in this country, or the grounds on which it was jus- 
tified, it has, in its present state, in the recognition 
of the laws, in the practice of centuries, in the sup- 
port afforded to the slave in infancy and weakness, 
in the peculiarities of his race and position, and in the 
necessities arising from them; in the impracticability 
of legal or peaceful abolition, and in the great advan- 
tages arising to the states, in which it exists, to the 
nation at large, to the slaves themselves, and to the 
whites — a sanction more potential and conclusive 
than the dicta of philosophers. 

The abolitionist, who is fired at the thought of the 
negro in contented and comfortable bondage, scru- 
ples not, should his debtor, sinking under the heavy 
hand of poverty, fail to pay his claim, to seize and 
consign him to a jail. Here, debarred from common 
food and common air — the damp straw his couch, 
the mouldering and filth-mantled prison walls his 
home, abandoned to suffering, horror, and infamy, 
he may weep over the fate of his lone and helpless 
wife and little ones — and admire the philanthropy 
of the abolitionist! Such things are of daily occur- 
rence. Has the abolitionist then no compassion for 
the white slave? Does he think it justifiable to in- 
flict upon him cruelties which the negro never fears 



87 

and never suffers? He will answer that the white 
man incurred an obligation to pay him. Does the 
negro mcur no such obligation in return for the 
abundance provided him by his master? He will 
urge that the laws of the land sanction it And has 
the South no laws, or are their laws alone to be de- 
spised and trampled on? But he will persist— the 
white man is not held for life. In certain cases he is 
held for life, condemned to respire only in the loath- 
some atmosphere of a dungeon; and if he sees at all 
the blessed sky, to gaze at it, with a pallid cheek and 
an aching heart, through the grates of that perpetual 
prison to which his white brother— perchance an 
abolitionist — a pious philanthropist, who expends 
tens of thousands to excite the happy negro to dis- 
content and murder — has condemned him for the 
crime of poverty !— Such things may occur, even at 
the enlightened and sanctimonious North and East. 

The poor white slave may thus live— perish thus 

— and who tells him that his slavery is unlawful, 
an offence against God, or bids him destroy his 
jailor and set himself free? 

The laws of every community justify a certain 
state of domestic bondage. The child is, to a cer- 
tain extent, the slave of his father, the servant or 
the apprentice of his master. True, the master is 
restricted by law; and he can neither punish unne- 
cessarily, nor use those, whose care is entrusted with 
him, with cruelty or neglect. But is not the slave- 
holder of the South equally controlled ? Is not the 
slave equally protected? If the law is justified in 
the sanction of slavery, for the undoubted benefit of 
society and of those concerned, for a term of ten or 
fifteen years, why not of twenty, or fifty, or an hun- 
dred? The welfare of society is the object of both 
species of servitude; both are sanctioned by national 
law, and both must be continued. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Slavery considered in continuation — Sanctioned 
by the Old and Neiv Testaments, and accord- 
ant ivith the precepts and spirit of Christianity , 

The scheme of abolition had its origin in religious 
fanaticism; and is still urged on religious grounds. 
Religious feelings and prejudices are invoked in its 
favour; religious periodicals are enlisted in its sup- 
port; and even religious persecution has been 
already used to aid and urge its advance. These 
measures have, it is feared, deceived some, who 
have not examined this subject, into a belief that 
slavery is inconsistent with religion ; and good, but 
weak men, have thus been induced to lend their 
names to one of the most sanguinary schemes which 
ever borrowed the cloak of religion to conceal the 
purpose and perpetration of crime. To such it may 
be well to mention, that the whole clergy of the 
South, certainly not inferior, in any particular, to 
their brethren in any part of the world, lend their 
express sanction to slavery. If inconsistent with 
the letter or spirit of Christianity, if cruel or op- 
pressive, could they be thus induced unanimously 
to approve and countenance it? Such an imputa- 
tion on their purity and holiness cannot for a mo- 
ment be cherished. 

We will, however, proceed by quotations from 
Scripture, to prove that slavery, so far from being 
irreconcilable to religion, is fully sanctioned by the 
clear and unequivocal expression of the divine will. 



89 

Immediately after the deluge, Noah, an inspired 
prophet, pronounced the following curse upon the 
posterity of Ham, from whom the African race is 
supposed to have sprung: — " Cursed be Canaan; a 
servant of servants shall he be to his brethen. And 
he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Ca- 
naan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, 
and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan 
shall be his servant." Gen. ix. 25, 26, 27. Thus 
when there was but one family on the face of the 
earth, a portion of that family was doomed to be 
slaves to the others. 

In the covenant made by God with Abraham, the 
patriarch is directed to ratify it with the ceremonial 
of circumcision. Among those included in the co- 
venant, were slaves. " He that is born in thy house, 
and he that is bought with thy money, must needs 
be circumcised." Gen. xvii. 13. In the 27th verse 
of the same chapter, we are informed that this direc- 
tion was obeyed: "And all the men of his house, 
born in the house, and bought with money of the 
stranger, were circumcised with him." From these 
passages, it is evident that slavery existed in the 
time of Abraham; that the patriarch was himself a 
slave-holder; that his slaves were not captives in 
war, nor convicts of crime, but '^ bought with mo- 
ney, of the stranger;" that Abraham, notwithstand- 
ing that he was a slave-holder, was the chosen of 
God among the families of the earth; and that God, 
in making the covenant, mentions the slaves, and 
impliedly sanctions their bondage. 

After this time, the patriarch increased his stock 
; of slaves. In Gen. xx. 14, it is said, '' And Abime- 
lech took sheep and oxen, and men servants and 
women servants, and gave them unto Abraham." 
In a subsequent chapter, a servant of Abraham says, 
« And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, anci 
8* 



90 

he is become great: and he hath given him flocks and 
herds, and silver and gold, and men servants and 
maid servants, and camels and asses." Gen. xxiv. 35. 
Jacob also, Gen. xxx. 43, is spoken of as follows: 
" And the man increased exceedingly, and had much 
cattle, and maid servants and men servants, and ca- 
mels and asses." There is but little doubt, notwith- 
standing the Lord frequently declares himself " the 
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," that all those 
holy and faithful patriarchs were slaveholders; and 
that men servants and maid servants constituted a 
large constituent in the wealth, which the favour of 
Providence conferred upon them. 

The book of Exodus furnishes many conclusive 
evidences of the direct sanction of slavery. In the 
12th chapter, a distinction is made between hired 
servants and slaves, the latter being entitled to the 
benefit of the covenant, the former excluded. " But 
every man servant that is bought for money, when 
thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. 
A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat there- 
of." See verses 44 and 45. The following passages 
recognize slavery in the most distinct manner; and 
refer to slaves as property. ^' And if a man smite 
his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die 
under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Not- 
withstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall 
not be punished :ybr he is his money. ''^ The whole 
chapter abounds in evidence of the existence of sla- 
very, in some cases limited in duration, in others 
perpetual. 

In Leviticus, the subject is still further elucidated. 
The following passages, from the 25th chapter, give 
a full account of slavery among the Jews, as regu- 
lated by the ordinances of God. " And if thy bro- 
ther, that dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and be 
sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve 



91 

as a bond servant: but as a hired servant, and as a 
sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee 
unto the year of the jubilee: and then shall he de- 
part from thee, both he and his children with him, 
and shall return unto his own family, and unto the 
possession of his fathers shall he return. For they 
are my servants which I brought forth out of the 
land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen. 
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour, but shalt 
fear thy God. Both thy bondmen and the bond- 
maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the hea- 
then that are round about you; of them shall ye buy 
bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children 
of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them 
shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, 
which they begat in your land; and they shall be 
your possession. And ye shall take them as an 
inheritance for your children after you to inherit 
them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen 
for ever; but over your brethren, the children of 
Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with 
rigour. '^ 

From these passages, it appears that the divine 
code discouraged the holding of the children of Is- 
rael as slaves; and, when they fell into bondage, 
secured them certain privileges, in consideration of 
their being members of the favoured nation. But 
a policy wholly different is directed towards fo- 
reigners or the descendants of foreigners. The Jews 
are not merely permitted but directed to procure 
from them slaves — '^ of them shall ye buy bondmen 
and bondmaids." The " strangers" occupied to- 
wards the Jews the relative position which the 
Africans bear towards us, except that they were not, 
like the Africans, separated by the hand of nature 
from their masters, and from difference in colour 
and inferiority of character, rendered incapable of 



92 

equality and amalgamation. It also appears by the 
passage quoted, that God directly sanctioned the 
purchase and sale of slaves — " of them shall ye 
buy" — and regards them as a ''possession.^' The 
term of bondage, sanctioned by Heaven, was perpe- 
tual ''for ever;'' and the slaves are directed to be 
held " as an inheritance for your children after 
you to inherit them for a possession; they shall 
be your bondmen for ever." It is impossible to 
conceive or express a sanction of slavery, as it exists 
in this country, more full, unequivocal and conclu- 
sive. 

The decalogue contains several allusions to sla- 
very, accompanied by an implied sanction of the 
institution. The Fourth Commandment provides 
for an exemption from labour in favour of the " man 
servant and maid servant.;" and the Tenth Com- 
mandment prohibits the coveting a neighbour's 
" man servant or maid servant." In Samuel, xxv. 
10, there is reference to the existence of slavery, 
and to the escape of slaves from their masters — 
" there be many servants now-a-days that break 
away every man from his master." In the 4th and 
5th chapters of Nehemiah, the existence of slavery 
is mentioned; and David, the man after God's own 
heart, thus refers to slavery to illustrate the fervour 
of his adoration: — "As the eyes of servants look 
unto the hands of their master, and the eyes of a 
maiden to her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the 
Lord our God." Solomon says, " The king's fa- 
vour is towards a wise servant;" and thus sanctions 
domestic discipline, " a servant will not be corrected 
by words." Job, " a perfect and an upright man," 
sighs, in his afflictions, for that grave, where, he 
pathetically says, " the prisoners rest together, and 
the slave is free from his master:" intimating that 
the slave was not free until death. 



93 

Having proved by various passages from the Old 
Testament, that slavery not only existed among the 
Jews, but received the direct sanction of God, we 
might ask the advocates of abolition to prove, that, 
under the Christian dispensation, this sanction was 
ever withdrawn. But we will not wait for the per- 
formance of an impossibility, but proceed to show 
that the same sanction was renewed by our Saviour 
and his disciples.* 

At the period of the advent of Christ, slavery 
prevailed throughout the world. In that portion of 
Asia, in which Christianity was first preached, it 
existed in its severest form, and to a very great ex- 
tent. Had it been regarded as an evil, it could not 
have escaped the animadversion, not only of Christ, 
but of all the holy men who became, at his depar- 
ture, the preachers of his faith. A subject so nearly 
connected with the happiness of the mass of man- 
kind, could not have escaped, and did not escape, 
their attention: and, had it not possessed their ap- 
probation, must have been condemned. Instead of this, 
however, we find the institution sanctioned, slave- 
holders admitted into the bosom of the church, and 
slaves admonished to humility and obedience. " The 
apostles," (says a citizen of Georgia, the author of a 
valuable pamphlet on this subject, entitled. Remarks 

* If it be meant that in the Christian religion there is a 
special denunciation against slavery — that slavery and Chris- 
tianity cannot exist together — I think the honourable gentle- 
man must himself admit that the proposition is historically 
false. 

One peculiar characteristic of the Christian dispensation, if 
I must venture in this place upon such a theme, is, that it has 
accommodated itself to all states of society, rather than that 
it has selected any particular state of society for the peculiar 
exercise of its influence. If it has added lustre to the sceptre 
of the sovereign, it has equally been the consolation of the 
slave. — Speech of Mr, Canning, 



94 

upon Slavery,) " did not go forth and organize abo- 
lition societies, or attempt to disturb the civil rela- 
tions of men, under the pretence that the order of 
things, which, under God, had been established, 
must be overturned. They preached the gospel to 
masters and servants, and promised its rewards to 
all who should obey its precepts. They told mas- 
ters, to give unto their servants that which was just 
and equal, and told servants, to be obedient to their 
masters; and thus they endeavoured, by prescribing 
the duty, to promote the comfort, of both. ^ Ser- 
vants,^ says the apostle Peter, ' be subject to your 
masters with all fear; not only to the good and 
gentle, but also to the froward. For this is 
thankworthy, if a man, for conscience towards God, 
endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory 
is it, if, when you are buffeted for your faults, you 
take it patiently; but if when you do well and 
suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable 
to God,' Let it not be said that this express recog- 
nition of the obligation and duties of slavery, by 
him, of whom the Saviour said, ' on this rock will 
I build my church,' applies only to hired service. 
The institution, as it then existed, was one of ri- 
gorous and perpetual domestic servitude; and it 
was in express reference to that system, that the 
apostle prescribed the domestic code of relative duty 
between master and slave. Nor can any thing averse 
to this be inferred from the use of the word ' ser- 
vants^ in our translation; the original Greek word 
is ^ douloi,' the proper rendering of which, in Eng- 
lish, is ' slaves.' We cannot imagine any stronger 
recognition of the legality of slavery than this solemn 
injunction of Peter to the slave, not only to be 
faithful to the just and kind owner, but to be hum- 
ble and submissive to the buffets and stripes of even 
the capricious, unjust, and tyrannical master. If St. 



95 

Peter did not deem it his duty to pronounce domes- 
tic bondage unlawful, and proclaim liberty to the 
captive, and freedom to the slave, how comes it to 
be incumbent on the self-constituted missionaries of 
modern fanaticism, to preach down slavery as a sin 
against Christianity, and to preach up abolition as a 
Christian duty? Are they wiser and better than 
the apostle, nay, than even their gracious and divine 
Master; and is it their high province to overturn a 
domestic relation, which Christ and his early disci- 
ples were content to regulate'^ Regulation, not 
abolition, was all the author and first teachers of 
Christianity aimed at; and while they taught the 
slave his duty to his master, they also humanely 
bade ' masters do the same things to your servants, 
forbearing threatening, knowing that your master 
also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons 
with him.' (Ephesians, chap. 16.)'' 

The case of the centurion affords an instance where 
our divine Master himself, at the request of the mas- 
ter, restored a sick slave. The centurion avowed 
himself a slave-holder. " I am," said he, "a man 
under authority, having soldiers under me. I say 
to one ^ go,' and he goeth, and to another ^ come,' 
and he cometh, and to my servant ' do this,^ and 
he doeth it.^' Yet our Saviour healed his sick ser- 
vant without desiring his master to free him, or 
uttering a word in censure of their relation to each 
other. 

" Let every man," says Paul, " abide in the same 
calling wherein he is called. Art thou called being 
a servant? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be 
made free, use it rather. (1 Corinthians, vii. 20, 21.) 
Again: "Let as many servants as are under the 
yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honour, 
that the name of God and his doctrines be not blas- 
phemed; and they that have believing masters, let 



96 

them not despise them, because they are brethren, 
but rather do them service; because they are faithful 
and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things 
teach and exhort." 1 Tim. vi. 1, 2. 

The Epistle of Paul to Philemon, deserves pecu- 
liar attention, not only because it furnishes a distin- 
guished instance in w^hich the justice and legality of 
slavery is admitted, but exhibits the holy and emi- 
nent apostle as exerting his influence to restore the 
runaway slave to his master. Philemon, v^rhom 
Paul had converted, owned a slave, named Onesi- 
mus, who ran away from his master, and fled to 
Rome. Paul subsequently visited Rome; and there 
converted Onesimus. He persuaded Onesimus to 
return to his master and his duty; and writes to 
Philemon to receive him with kindness. The fol- 
lowing passage shows in what estimation Paul, the 
great apostle of the Gentiles, held Philemon, the 
slave-holder. '^ Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ, 
and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon, our dear- 
ly beloved and fellow labourer: grace to you, and 
peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus 
Christ. I thank my God: making mention of thee 
always in my prayers; hearing of thy love and faith 
which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward 
all the saints; that the communication of thy faith 
may become efiectual, by the acknowledging of 
every good thing, which is in you, in Jesus Christ 
For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, 
because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by 
thee, brother." 

The spirit which pervades the following passage, 
cannot fail to strike the Christian reader with admi- 
ration; and constitutes an illustrious contrast to the 
troublous, fierce and insurrectionary disposition ma- 
nifested by the fanatics. 

" Wherefore," continues Paul, " though I mighl 



97 

be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee, that which is 
convenient, yet for love sake I rather beseech thee, 
being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a 
prisoner of Jesus Christ; I beseech thee for my son 
Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds: 
which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now 
profitable to thee and me; whom I have sent again. 
Thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own 
bowels. Whom I would have retained with me, 
that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me 
in the bonds of the gospel: hut loithout thy mind 
would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be 
as it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps 
he therefore departed for a season, that thou should- 
est receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but 
above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, 
but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and 
in the Lord.'* If thou count me therefore as a part- 
ner, receive him as myself, if he hath wronged thee, 
or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account: I 
Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will 
repay it, albeit I do not say how thou owest unto 
me thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let me 
have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in 
the Lord. Having confidence in thy obedience, 1 
wrote unto thee, knowhig that thou wilt also do 
more than I say." 

The fanatics who find it impossible to explain 
away these cases of the direct sanction of slavery, 
and who seek in vain for a line or word which dis- 
courages or condemns that institution, seize, in their 
despair, upon the golden rule — ^' do unto others as 
you would that others should do unto you," and so 
pervert it as to make it condemn what our Saviour 
and his apostles directly sanctioned. This presump- 
tuous and profane attempt to make our Saviour's 
precepts inconsistent with his conduct, to distort his 
9 



98 

language, by a laboured and false inference, into a 
censure of that which he impliedly encouraged, 
cannot be regarded without indignation. It exhi- 
bits the desperate character of that fanaticism, which 
would rather cast a reproach upon the Divine Found- 
er of our blessed religion, than relinquish one of the 
cherished chimeras of their overheated and bewil- 
dered fancies. 

Their application of the " golden rule," strips it 
of its golden attributes, and makes it sanction all 
that it was intended to condemn. They insist that 
the maxim, as interpreted by them, requires that 
the authority of the master over the slave should be 
immediately relinquished. We may add that, it 
requires further, that the authority of the father over 
his child, of the master over his apprentice, of the 
tutor over his pupil, should also be given up. It 
requires that the ruler should not control the pri- 
vate citizen; that the judge should not sentence the 
convict, nor the jailor confine the thief. Neither 
the child, servant, nor scholar — the citizen, convict, 
nor thief are dealt with according to their desires; nor 
as those, in whose power they are placed, would de- 
sire, if their relative position were reversed. That 
rule which would require that their wishes should 
be regarded as rights, and conceded accordingly, 
would abrogate all law, v/ould place the innocent at 
the mercy of the guilty, involve right and wrong in 
indistinguishable confusion, and render society a 
chaotic and jarring mass of wretchedness and crime. 

The direct and only rational exposition of the 
golden rule is, that, in ever}^ relation of life, we 
should do that which we believe to be our strict 
duty; that we should free ourselves from the preju- 
dices and errors which our selfishness begets, and 
consider our duties rigidly and disinterestedly, un- 
swayed by the flattery, weakness and self-deceit of 



99 

our own natures. For this purpose we should ima- 
gine ourselves in the place of him with whom we 
are acting, and do unto him that which we, pos- 
sessed of our present knowledge of the circum- 
stances of the case, w^ould conceive proper, and 
which we would, if guided by a right intelligence, 
wish done unto us. The father should do unto his 
child as he would, if a child, and informed of his 
own interest, wish his father should do unto him; 
in like manner slave-holders should act towards 
their slaves, as a slave, possessed of their know- 
ledge of the calamitous results of emancipation, and 
willing to be guided by that knowledge, would wish 
them to act. If the slave-holder, by placing him- 
self, in fancy, in the condition of the slave, can 
imagine that the emancipation of the mass of igno- 
rant, indolent and savage blacks in the South would 
result in consequences favourable to the greatest 
good of the greatest number, he has a right to eman- 
cipate them. But until he can arrive at that con- 
viction, he has no moral right to flood the country 
with the horrors which must ensue, and would be 
guilty of an act of patricidal and guilty madness — 
ruinous to his country, his race, and even to the 
objects of his ill-directed and malign benevolence. 



CHAPTER X. 



Slavery considered, in continuation — Influence 
of Slavery — on civilization — on the female sex 
— on morality — on the political character and 
destinies of a country — on our country. 

A PIOUS and correct mind cannot but hesitate to 
question the general benevolence of an institution 
which appears to have resulted from the laws of na- 
ture, to have existed from the earliest period, and to 
have prevailed beneath the eye and sanction of our 
Saviour himself. We cannot but believe, that if 
slavery were an evil, it could not have been thus 
linked with the necessities of the race; thus entailed, 
generation after generation, upon millions of the 
human family, and permitted to exist in its most 
rigorous form, even among God's favoured people, 
and in the immediate presence of the Divine Found- 
er of Christianity. An examination of its influence 
upon the prosperity of nations, will vindicate Provi- 
dence from the presumptuous charge of having con- 
tinued and sustained an institution inimical to the 
moral and physical interests of the race; and prove 
that slavery, instead of operating injuriously, has, in 
its general influence, tended to ameliorate the condi- 
tion and elevate the character of mankind. 

The civilization of the race, if not kindled, was 
aided and heightened by the institution of slavery. 
Slaves are only valuable where regular labour is to 
be performed ; and must, in all ages, have been en- 



101 

gaged in agriculture. The pursuit of agriculture has 
always tended, more than any other cause, to soften 
and enlighten the character of man. It wins him from 
the chase or the battle-field; it gives him permanent 
employment; connects him with a fixed spot; and 
acquaints him with the comforts of home. Domes- 
tic attacliments soon spring up, and, cherished be- 
neath the roof of the cotter, succeed in introducing 
new and more refined pursuits and pleasures. Sla- 
very, probably coeval with the birth of agriculture, 
continued to impel the master onward in the career 
of civilization; it gathered around him the comforts 
of life; it accumulated wealth for him; and by crea- 
ting artificial wants, and furnishing the means for 
their gratification, excited new desires and awakened 
new faculties for their attainment. Manufactures and 
commerce succeeded; the arts of civilized life sprang 
into existence; and man became a refined and intel- 
lectual being. 

In America, the only states in which, at its dis- 
covery, slavery existed, were Peru and Mexico. 
" When compared/^ says Robertson, " with the 
other parts of the new world, Mexico and Peru 
may be considered as polished states.'^ The people 
had collected in cities; possessed a government, laws, 
and system of religion, and had acquired some pro- 
ficiency in the arts — attainments resulting, no doubt, 
from slavery. 

In the islands of the South Sea, Captain Cook was 
astonished at the populousness of the Otaheite and 
Society Islands. It is ascribed to the existence of 
slavery, which prevailed in those islands. 

In a late history of Africa, (Family Library, No. 
1 6, ) the following remark occurs : " It deserves par- 
ticular notice, that the nations in this degrading 
state (slavery) are the most numerous, the most 
q * 



102 

powerful, and the most advanced in the arts and 
improvements of life." 
^ Professor Dew is of opinion that the introduction 
of slavery among the Indians of this country, would 
have averted the approaching annihilation of the 
aboriginal race. He says, " When our ancestors 
first settled on this continent, the savages were 
around and among them, and were everywhere 
spread over this immense territory. Now, where 
are they? — Where are the warlike tribes that 
went to battle under their chieftains? They have 
rapidly disappeared, as the pale faces have advanced. 
Their numbers have dwindled to insignificance. 
Within the limits of the original states, the primi- 
tive stock has been reduced to 15,000. Within the 
whole of the United States, east of the Mississippi, 
there are but 105,000; and on the whole of our ter- 
ritory, east and west of the Mississippi, extending 
over thirty-four degrees of latitude and fifty-eight of 
longitude, there are but 313,130! Miserable rem- 
nant of the myriads of former days! And yet the 
government of our country has exhausted every 
means for their civilization; and the philanthropist 
has not been idle in their behalf. Schools have 
been erected, both public and private; missionaries 
have been sent among them — and all in vain. The 
President of the United States now tells you that 
their removal further to the West, is necessary — 
that those who live on our borders, in spite of all 
our efforts to civilize them, are rapidly deteriorating 
in character, and becoming every day more misera- 
ble and destitute." 

" Slavery," Mr. Dew continues, " we assert 
again, appears to be the only means that we know 
of, under heaven, by which the ferocity of the sav- 
age can be conquered, his wandering habits eradi- 



* 103 

cated, his slothfulness — by which, in fine, his nature 
can be changed. The Spaniards enslaved the In- 
dians in South America, and they were the most 
cruel and relentless of masters. Still, under their 
system of cruel and harsh discipline, an infinitely 
larger portion of the aborigines were saved than 
with us, and will, no doubt, in the lapse of ages, 
mix and harmonize with the Europeans, and be in 
all respects their equals. From their inhuman treat- 
ment of the Indians at first, numbers died in the 
process of taming and subjugating; but in the end, 
their system has proved more humane than ours, 
and demonstrates, beyond a doubt, that nothing is 
so fit as slavery to change the nature of the savage. 
'We observe,' says Humboldt, 'and the observa- 
tion is consoling to humanity, that not only has the 
number of Indians in South America and Mexico 
been on the increase for the last century, (he pub- 
lished his work in 1808,) but that the whole of the 
vast region which we designate by the general name 
of New Spain is much better inhabited at present 
than it was before the arrival of the Europeans.' 
He gives a very remarkable instance of the effects 
of an unjust slavery on the industry and agriculture 
of the country. He speaks of the alcaldias may- 
ares, a sort of provincial magistrates and judges in 
Mexico, forcing the Indians to purchase cattle of 
them, and afterwards reducing them to slavery for 
non-payment of the debts thus contracted; and he 
adds, upon the authority of Fray Antonio, monk of 
St. Jerome, that ' the individual happiness of these 
unfortunate wretches was not certainly increased by 
the sacrifice of their liberty for a horse or a mule, 
to work for their master's profit. But yet, in the 
midst of this state of things, brought on by abuses, 
/ agriculture and industry were seen to increase.^ " 
The views of Professor Dew on this subject are 



104 

confirmed by Secretary Cass, who, referring to the 
Cherokees as the only tribe that has acquired partial 
civilization, says: "The causes which have led to 
this state of things are too peculiar ever to produce an 
extensive result. They have been operating for many 
years; and among the most prominent of them has 
been the introduction of slaves, by which means 
that unconquerable aversion to labour, so charac- 
teristic of all savage tribes, can be indulged.'^ 

One of the most pleasing incidents of slavery is 
its amelioration of the condition of the female sex. 
Among all savage people women are degraded into 
slaves, the abject drudges of their brutal lords. The 
men indulge in the chase, or pursue their wars, and 
leave to helpless woman a lot of cruelty and degra- 
dation, of labour without intermission, suffering 
without sympathy. One of the first fruits of slavery 
is the rescue of the gentle victims from their unde- 
served and w^retched fate. The slave relieves the 
woman. Released from a condition worse than that 
of bondage, leisure is afforded; and with woman, in 
her rudest state, leisure must result in improve- 
ment. Her faculties are developed; her gentle and 
softening influence is seen and felt; she assumes the 
high station for which nature designed her; and, 
happy in the hallowed affections of her own bosom, 
unweariedly exerts those powers so well adapted to 
the task of humanizing and blessing others. 

It has been asserted, that slavery exerts an unfor- 
tunate influence over the morals of the people among 
whom it prevails. This result is produced, it is said, 
by the vicious example set by the slave-holder to his 
child : l)ut we have no reason to believe that a mas- 
ter of slaves is more liable than another to exhibit 
an example dangerous to the morals of his child. 
On the contrary, the slave-holding portion of our 
citizens are known, by all acquainted with their 



105 



character, and uninfluenced by the calumnies of the 
abolitionists, to be as moderate, as refined, as moral, 
as studious and scrupulous in the performance of 
^eir duties as citizens and Christians, as the inha- 
bitants of any section of our country, or any other 
country. Indeed it has been frequently remarked, 

!n^M I!7 ^^"^' ^"^ ^""^^^ ^^^ ^efi^^ the character 
and tha^the class of our people referred to are gene- 

rn7/''?'fu^^^'^^^^^ '"^ ^^^"* «^"se of duty, more 
polished than any other portion of our population. 
Ihis fact has been remarked not only by the unpre- 
judiced of our own citizens, but by intelligent and 
candid foreigners. The institution appears to exert a 
beneficial influence on the slave also. There is no 
instance on record of so rapid an improvement in the 
character of a people, as has taken place in the Afri- 
cans and their descendants in this country. Ci-^ih"- 
zation and conversion to Christianity could not have 
been so rapidly and efibctually accomplished in any 
other manner. The moral influence of slavery upon 
those subject to its obligation, maybe perhaps as- 
cribed to the fact, that the slave has, in that condi- 
tion, nothing to tempt or urge him into immorality, 
and every thing both in hope and fear, to restrain 
him from it. Mr. Giles of Virginia, with that proud 
exultation with which the citizens of the Old Domi- 
nion regard their native state, said, that ^^ the whole 
population of Virginia, consisting of three casies, of 
ree white free coloured, and slave-coloured popu- 
lation IS the soundest and most moral of any other 
according to numbers, in the whole world, as far as 
IS k"own to me.- Mr. Walsh also remarks on this 
subject: ^^ When we investigate the dispositions and 
morals ot the European nations, it is not with the 
lowest and least' of them alone, but with the high- 
est and greatest, that we venture to compare the 
white population of our slave-holding states.'^ 



106 

The advocates of abolition refer with great confi- 
dence to the danger which menaces the political 
character of our country and people from the influ- 
ence of slavery. We cannot but marvel at the pre- 
sumption of men who can affect a regard for the 
interests of their country at the moment they are 
urging schemes which they knoiv must sunder the 
bonds which knit it together, and hurl it down from 
the proud elevation which, as a united confederacy, 
it has so long occupied. They have urged abolition 
for years, and continue to urge it. Do they persist 
in the hope that they will persuade the slave-holder 
to relinquish his property ? On the contrary, they 
have adopted a course of abuse towards the southron 
which they know must, and which they intend 
shall, irritate and madden him. They cherish no 
object which requires the assent of the slave-holder; 
they expect to urge the north into measures to coerce 
abolition, and failing in that, to incite the negroes 
to insurrection! These are the patriots who affect 
such peculiar concern for the influence of slavery 
upon the political interests of the country — men 
who are plotting not merely its political ruin, but 
its desolation with fire and sword — its destruction 
with all the horrors of a civil and servile war, hor- 
rors which would make our cities a solitude, our 
valleys deserts, and redden our rivers with the blood 
of our people. The political character of the coun- 
try must sink low indeed before it can need such 
protectors. 

Slavery has existed in this country, as we have 
seen, from its earliest settlement. Where and how 
has it deteriorated its political character? Who were 
they that first denounced the oppressions of Great 
Britain? The slave-holders of Virginia. Who first 
declared themselves independent, and dared the 
hazards of a contest with the colossal power of the 



107 

mother country? The slave-holders of North Caro- 
lina. Who, when exempted from the severities of 
England and offered the advantages accruing from 
the restrictions on New England commerce, rejected 
the profiered privilege with disdain, and preferred 
suffering with their brethren to profiting by their 
adversity? The slave-holders of South Carolina. 
Who, m the hour of our country's trial, have been 
foremost in her defence— who in her councils have 
displayed the most profound political wisdom, 
united to the warmest and holiest patriotism? The 
slave-holders Washington and Jefferson, Madison and 
Marshall, Henry and Calhoun, Clay and Jackson, 
and a host whose illustrious lives present a noble 
vindication of their country. What means the con- 
stant iteration of these paltry charges against the 
south? Has the north a right to decide that she is 
superior to her sister south, in political virtue: to say 
stand aside, for lam holier than thou? Is this mo- 
dest assumption of superior virtue creditable to her? 
Above all, is it true? The political history of our 
country responds emphatically and indignantly in the 
negative. In politics, if the south has been ardent she 
has ever been honest; if she has maintained her own 
rights with intrepidity, she has also bared her breast 
with eager and patriotic zeal whenever the north 
was endangered. It will be conceded that in no 
part of the Union is the same jealous devotion 
to liberty manifested; nowhere do the usurpations 
of power meet so prompt and stern a rebuke, the in- 
trigues of the demagogue so general and contemptu- 
ous an opposition; nowhere are the public men more 
intrepid, able and independent, or the people them- 
selves more intractable and proud-spirited in the 
consciousness and maintenance of their freedom. 
On this subject we have the testimony of the splen- 
did and philosophical mind of Burke. The whole 



108 

passage, which we extract from his speech on con- 
ciliation with America, is equally brilliant and sound. 

" There is a circumstance attending the southern 
American colonies, which makes the spirit of liberty 
still Tnore high and haughty there than in those to 
the northward. It is that in Virginia and the Caroli- 
nas, they have vast multitudes of slaves. Where this 
is the case in any part of the world, those who are free 
are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. 
Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a 
kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing there that 
freedom, as in countries where it is a common bless- 
ing, and as broad and general as the air, may be 
united with much abject toil, ivith great misery^ 
with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks 
amongst them like something that is more noble and 
liberal. I do not mean to commend the superior mo- 
rality of this sentiment, which has at least as much 
pride as virtue in it; but I cannot alter the nature 
of man. The fact is so: and these people of the 
southern colonies are rnuch more strongly, and 
with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached 
to liberty than those of the northiuard. Such 
were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our 
Gothic ancestors; such, in our days, were the Poles; 
and such will be all masters of slaves who are 
not slaves themselves. In such a people the haughti- 
ness of domination combines with the spirit of free- 
dom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible." 

To him who contemplates the '^high and haughty '^ 
virtues of the south, and then recurs to the treachery 
and tergiversation, the degrading appeals to popular 
errors, the corrupt arts of electioneering, the ser- 
vility and indifference to principle, and the universal 
and ravenous appetite for office, exhibited in the 
politics of the north — we say, that to him who con- 
templates the contrast thus presented, the objections 



109 



made to slavery on account of Its influence in pro- 
ciucmg political degeneracy, appear too absurd for 
serious refutation. 

In the republics of Greece and Rome, when the 
spirit ol freedom was cherished with the sternest 
devotion, when their people were, in its defence, 
perlorming deeds which have made their names the 
synonymes of all that is noble and illustrious, slavery 
prevailed to such an extent that the bond doubled 
the number of the free. So far were the sae;es or 
patriots of those countries from regarding it as an 
eviJ, that they considered it essential for the preser- 
vation of an elevated national character. Aristotle 
and the philosophers of old, deemed slavery neces- 
sary to maintain the spirit of freedom. In Sparta, 
so strong was their conviction of the necessity of 
slavery to encourage a free and independent spirit 
in their citizens, that it was made penal for a free- 
man to perform the offices of a slave. Ferguson, in 
his essay on the history of civil society, says: " We 
feel the injustice of the institution of slavery at 
Sparta. We suffer for the Helot: but we think only 
of the superior order of men in this state, when we 
attend to that elevation and magnanimity of spirit 
for which danger had no terror, interest no means 
to corrupt: when we consider them as friends or as 
citizens, we are apt to forget, like themselves, that 
slaves have a title to be treated like men." 

It will be admitted, that one of the first and most 
essential requisites in the formation of republican 
character is intelligence. Without that, patriotism 
is blind and inefficient. Without it, a virtuous peo- 
ple may be readily deceived and betrayed, and lose 
their freedom before they dream that it is in peril. 
The slave-holder has, in this particular, the inestima- 
ble advantage of leisure. Relieved from the labour 
required for actual support, he is enabled to direct 



ilO 

his attention to public affairs; to investigate political 
subjects, and exercise his privileges understandingly. 
This result has been fully attained at the south. In 
no population in the world is the same time devoted 
to political investigations; and nowhere are the rights 
of man so fully canvassed and understood by the 
mass of the citizens. 

While we acknowledge that some of the noblest 
spirits which our race has boasted have been linked, 
through life, with poverty, and while we are proud 
to be enabled to boast that in no country are the 
poor more pure and virtuous than in our own, yet 
we must also admit that poverty has its temptations. 
Men who enter into politics, as do many in the north, 
for the purpose of making money, are but danger- 
ous agents. The public council, which is constituted 
of men who from situation and character are acces- 
sible to pecuniary temptation, is but a frail barrier 
against the designs of the ambitious. In most cases 
it becomes not merely treacherous in its inactivity, 
but active in its treason — the pliant and efficient en- 
gine of power. The institution of slavery, by form- 
ing the character of the citizen on a more elevated 
standard, by lifting him above the necessities and 
temptations of poverty, secures, to the councils of 
the country, men for whom, to repeat the words of 
Ferguson, ^« danger has no terror, interest no means 
to corrupt.'' 

There is one result which has been accomplished 
by slavery, and which no other cause has hitherto 
completely effected — it has introduced a complete 
equality among the whites. Professor Dew thus 
describes the difference which prevails in the north 
and south in this particular. " The menial and low 
offices being all performed by the blacks, there is at 
once taken away the greatest cause of distinction 
and separation of the ranks of society. The man 



Ill 

at the north will not shake hands familiarly with 
his servant, and converse and laugh, and dine with 
him, no matter how honest and respectable he may 
be. But go to the south, and you will find that no 
white man feels such inferiority of rank as to be 
unworthy of association with those around him. 
Colour alone is here the badge of distinction, the 
true mark of aristocracy, and all who are white are 
equal in spite of variety of occupation.'^ That this 
equality upon the part of the whites is occasioned 
by the presence of slavery is demonstrated by the 
fact, that it exists also in the West Indies, as will be 
seen by the following passage from Bryan Edward's 
History of these Islands. '^ Of the character," says 
this author, *^ common to the white residents of the 
West Indies, it appears to me, that the leading fea- 
ture is an independent spirit, and a display of con- 
scious equality, throughout all ranks and conditions. 
The poorest white person seems to consider himself 
nearly on a level with the richest, and, emboldened 
by this idea, approaches his employer with extended 
hand, and a freedom which, in the countries of Eu- 
rope, is seldom displayed by men in the lower orders 
of life towards their superiors. It is not difficult to 
trace the origin of this principle. It arises, without 
doubt, from the pre-eminence and distinction which 
are necessarily attached even to the complexion of 
a white man in a country where the complexion, 
generally speaking, distinguishes freedom from 
slavery." 

No one who has resided at the north will be will- 
ing to deny the alleged inequality in the rank of our 
citizens. It must be acknowledged that there has 
sprung up amongst us that most odious of all species 
of aristocracy— -the aristocracy of gold. Wealth has 
already attained a j>ower which, it must be admitted, 
elevates it to a rank unapproachable to the poor. 



112 

Already have we the upper, middle, and lower 
ranks of society: and no one will presume to assert 
that any personal merit will entitle the unfortunate 
member of the lower caste to mingle with the 
higher. It is the inevitable consequence of the 
revolution which divides society into ranks, that 
while one rises the other sinks. This has been the 
case at the north; and while the wealthy have at- 
tained rank and power, the poor have lost both. 
True, they still possess the elective franchise; but 
even in the exercise of this they are driven in heady 
and unreflecting masses by demagogues, or swayed 
by rich patrons and employers. Any one conver- 
sant with the influence attained by those whose capi- 
tal places them at the head of large numbers, will 
admit, that whatever may be the cant of the poli- 
ticians of the day, the irresistible force of circum- 
stances has destroyed for ever the boasted equality 
of the people. The climate of our northern lati- 
tude, and the pursuits of our people, have prevented 
the introduction of slaves into the north, and we 
rejoice that it is so: but had the lower offices of 
labour been performed by servile hands, we would 
not find the poor of our section of the Union occu- 
pying their present position. 

The slavery of the southern states of this Union 
is, in some of its features, peculiar, and is not liable 
to many of the objections alleged against slavery in 
general. One of these peculiarities is the complex- 
ion of the slave. 

We are aware that the colour of the slave is made 
the constant theme of artful declamation by the 
abolitionists. The negroes are said to be punished 
for the hue of their skin; and the right to hold the 
slave is made to arise from that peculiarity. It is 
scarcely necessary to say that these representations, 
like most others from the same source, are wilfully 



113 

false, and are intended only to excite the slave to 
violence and revenge. But since they refer thus 
triumphantly to the colour of the slave, we may re- 
mark, that it does constitute, among the numerous 
and overwhelming considerations which constrain 
the slave-holder to reject the mad projects of the 
abolitionists, an argument « of great pith and mo- 
ment." 

In most countries in which slavery has prevailed, 
the slave has been of the same race, form, and com- 
plexion as his master; and was frequently not only 
his equal but superior in mental and personal accom- 
plishments. These facts could not but impart to the 
aspect of slavery an expression of peculiar severity 
and injustice, and excite in the bosom of the slave 
a sense of wrong, and a desire for redress. Here no 
such jealousy exists. The slave sees himself "quoted 
and marked" as a different, perhaps an inferior race, 
of the human species; and never, unless under the 
benign influence of the abolition mischief-makers, 
regards the superiority of his master with envy or 
ill will. Among the ancients, the act of manumis- 
sion annihilated all distinction between the master 
and the slave, or between the latter and the mass of 
society. He merged with the body of the popula- 
tion, and was marked by no peculiarity to distin- 
guish or separate him from others, and to render 
him, in the midst of the population, an exile and an 
outcast. Here, on the contrary, the colour of the 
slave is the badge of his condition; and does much 
to make him regard it as his destiny. Even manu- 
mission cannot materially change his lot — cannot 
give him the privileges of the whites — lift him to 
the rank of a freeman, or wipe away the colour 
which separates him from the m.ass of our people, 
and dooms him to inevitable and perpetual infe- 
riority. In the countries referred to, the reminis- 
10* 



114 

cence of the slave often comprised a record of for- 
mer opulence, power, and pride, from which the 
fortunes of war or the tyranny of power had torn 
him, to consign him to the most abject and cruel 
slavery. With our negro the past is either a blank 
or a record of wretchedness. His nation is a peo- 
ple of slaves: all of his colour were, in their pro- 
genitors or themselves, bondmen. His country, 
instead of being an object of desire and regret, is a 
terror; and nothing can appal him more than the 
prospect of returning to it. His present condition, 
so far from being a lapse or fall from former happi- 
ness, is superior to any lot which his ancestors or 
himself had dared to hope. The abolitionists sym- 
pathise profoundly with the degradation of the negro. 
Their sympathies are wasted. He knows no degra- 
dation. His situation is now as proud as it has ever 
been; and his ambition, unless perverted by the abo- 
litionists^ seeks no higher distinction, and can know 
no greater pride, than the praise of his master for 
superior morality, diligence, and good conduct. Such 
is the slavery of the negro; and his complexion, not- 
withstanding the poetic appeals of the enthusiasts, 
has a great and beneficial influence in rendering him 
humble and content with the situation in which 
Providence has placed him. 

We consider it impossible for any candid mind 
acquainted with the subject, to doubt that slavery is 
indispensable to the South; that it is the source of 
its wealth, influence, power, and prosperity; and 
that its abolition would make the southern states a 
desert. That such is and has long been the opinion 
of the intelligent citizens of the South, no one will 
deny. The following paragraph is copied from the 
*^ Charleston Courier," and was published some 
years ago. It must be remembered, that the " Cou- 
rier is an Union print ^ and is distinguished for its 



115 

zeal and ability in opposing the ruling party in 
South Carolina. 

" We niust be permitted, however, to say to the 
Boston editor, that he is utterly mistaken in suppos- 
ing that the people of the South regard domestic 
slavery, as it exists among them, in the light of a 
curse; on the contrary, they hold it to be absolutely 
necessary to the proper cultivation of the soil, and 
to be the great source of their prosperity, wealth, 
and happiness; without it their fertile fields would 
become a wilderness and a desert, — their real curse 
not being slavery, but a climate, which, although 
congenial to the constitution of the negro, would 
mow down the whites with the scythe of destruc- 
tion. Nor do the people, of the South deem slavery 
* a curse' to the negroes themselves — it exists with 
us in a mild parental form — the relation between 
master and slave being cemented as well by affec- 
tion as interest — and the slaves of the South are be- 
lieved, and, we may indeed say, knowri to be, a 
better and a happier race than the idle and vagabond 
free coloured population of the North, the worn out 
and half-starved manufacturers of England, and the 
labouring classes in most other countries.^' 

The soil and productions, but more particularly 
the climate of the South, preclude the possibility 
of the successful employment of white labourers 
there. Severe physical toil in the South has always 
proved fatal to the white man; to the negro, on the 
contrary, it is attended with neither danger nor in- 
convenience. The torrid sun has no terrors for him; 
and the hot breath of the South, before which the 
white labourer faints and perishes, is found to be 
accordant with the constitution and nature of the 
black. It was the impracticability of employing 
white labour, that induced the original introduc- 
tion of slavery, and that has continued and will 



117 

continue it. Of the unfitness of the white man for 
continued exposure and labour in the South, there 
is, with those acquainted with the facts, no doubt. 
If there were, to banish them it would be sufficient 
to mention that white labour never there has been 
successfully employed; that when tried it has been 
found to result in the extended destruction of life; 
and that, with all the characteristic enterprise and 
hardihood of our countrymen, and with the unri- 
valled advantages of the South to the agriculturist 
— the entire South is still cultivated by blacks. On 
this subject, an intelligent journalist of a northern 
city, (M. M. Noah, Esq.) says — 

" Setting aside all that has been said in favour of 
the position, that slavery is a natural condition of 
the negro, which must of necessity exist as a natu- 
ral consequence of the imperfect organization of the 
negro, we now come to the question whether it is 
not absolutely necessary as a component element in 
the structure of society in this country. Whatever 
might have been the result of a dense population in 
the southern states, exclusively composed of whites, 
we would now put the question whether it would 
have been possible to have cultivated the soil of the 
southern states, possessing the peculiarities of cli- 
mate which they do, without the aid of a negro 
population? Whether the staple commodities of 
cotton, tobacco, rice, &c., which are the growth of 
that peculiar climate and soil, could have ever been 
brought to the successful cultivation that they have 
been without slave labour? Is it not clear that these 
rich staples to which we of the North, as well as of 
the South, owe all the wealth, prosperity and great- 
ness of our country, would have been a dead letter 
without the aid of slave labour? Is it not certain 
that, without this dispensation in our behalf, the 
whole South would have been an entire swamp and 



117 

morass of stagnant pools and weeds, and overgrown 
lorests? We think this undeniable. And who are 
those that have been most benefitted and most en- 
riched by this state of things? The North and her 
enterpnsmg citizens, who have been the active 
traders that have brought this wealth into the mar- 
Jiet, and who, for want of any peculiar staples them- 
selves, have become the factors and merchants, and 
ship-builders and manufacturers, by which the great 
southern staple of cotton has been consumed and 
turned into a most profitable source of wealth. The 
North, therefore, in countenancing any interference 
with the slave property of the South, or in endea- 
vouring by emancipation, abolition, or otherwise, 
to weaken the relation existing between master and 
slave, is stabbing her own vital interests to the 
heart. '^ 

Even those who advocate abolition do not deny 
the necessity of retaining the labour of the blacks. 
They admit that the climate of the South is fatal to 
the labouring white man, and acknowledge, to the 
fullest extent, the desolating consequences of a re- 
mission of negro labour in that section of the repub- 
lic. Drs. Reed and Matheson, delegates from the 
congregational union of England and Wales, to the 
American churches, have since their return pub- 
lished two volumes of letters, in which the subject 
of slavery is handled with all the presumptuous 
boldness of ignorance, and many abolition slanders 
repeated with confident assurances of their veracity. 
It is unnecessary here to speak of the conduct of 
these gentlemen, who visit the country on a mission 
of piety, and after having received the most fraternal 
and afiectionate attention, return to calumniate us. 
We refer to the work to quote the following im- 
portant admissions. '« To transport all the slaves to 
a foreign shore would inflict on America herself a 



118 

most deadly wound. She wants the coloured ^qo- 
}^\e\ she cannot do ivithout them. ^^ Again. '^ If the 
•Africans were removed to-m,orrow one half of 
HER TERRITORIES WOULD BE A MERE DESOLA- 
TION!" Such is the language even of abolitionists. 
The following description of the details of slave 
labour in Louisiana is interesting and important. 
We extract them from Flint's History of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley." " In all the better managed plan- 
tations, the mode of building the quarters is fixed. 
The arrangement of the little village has a fashion, 
by which it is settled. Interest, if not humanity, 
has defined the amount of food and rest necessary 
for their health: there is on a large and respectable 
plantation as much precision in the rules, as much 
exactness in the times of going to sleep, awakening, 
going to labour, and resting before and after meals, as 
in a garrison under military discipline, or in a ship of 
war. A bell gives all the signals. Every slave at 
the assigned hour in the morning is forthcoming to 
his labour, or his case is reported, either as one of 
idleness, obstinacy, or sickness, in which case he is 
sent to the hospital, and there he is attended by a 
physician, who, for the most part, has a yearly salary 
for attending all the sick of the plantation. The 
union of physical force, directed by one will, is now 
well understood to have a much greater effect upon 
the amount of labour which a number of hands so 
managed can bring about, than the same force di- 
rected by as many wills as there are hands. Hence 
it happens, that while one free man, circumstances 
being the same, will perform more labour than one 
slave, one hundred slaves will accomplish more on 
one plantation, than so many hired free men acting 
at their own discretion. Hence, too, it is that such 
a prodigious quantity of cotton and sugar is made 
here in proportion to the number of labouring hands. 



119 

All the process of agriculture is managed by sys- 
tem. Every thing goes strait forward. There is 
no pulhng down to-day the scheme of yesterday, 
and the whole amount of force is directed, by the 
teachmg of experience, to the best result.'^ 

It would be well for those who assert the supe- 
riority of free labour, to explain the causes of its 
want of success. If free labour be more profitable, 
why IS It not introduced at the South.? Of the mil- 
lions who pour from the Atlantic board into the 
West, why are there none to try their system of 
labour in the slave states? And the southern planters 
themselves, why do they not seize this method of in- 
creasing their profits? With all the shrewdness and 
enterprise of the American character, how is it that 
this source of wealth has been undiscovered and un- 
disturbed? It is a marvel which those who underrate 
slave labour cannot explain. The spirit of our coun- 
try would long since have reformed such an evil 
had it been an evil — would long since have resorted 
to free labour, had free labour been able to compete 
vyith the labour of slaves. The conclusion is irre- 
sistible, that the present mode of cultivating the 
South is more profitable than any scheme which 
the northern abolitionists can devise, or such schemes 
would have been heretofore adopted; and that any 
change in the domestic institutions of the South 
would be disastrous to her and to the North. 

It will be freely admitted, that in the North, 
among free and intelligent whites, free labour is 
infinitely more profitable than the labour of slaves 
could there be. Had it been otherwise, slavery 
would now he as prevalent there as at the South. 
But it is vain and idle to pretend, that in a hot and 
sultry climate, where every thing invites even the 
more diligent white to indolence, that the slothful 
negro would labour without compulsion. In no 



120 

southern country that we are acquainted with, is 
free labour found to be so profitable as that which 
is urged by coercion. The labour of Spain and 
Italy is decidedly inferior to that of our southern 
states. But if this be true of white labourers be- 
neath a southern sun, it is peculiarly so of the blacks. 
We have no instance of profitable free labour among 
the free blacks. St. Domingo, once the greatest 
sugar growing island in the world, is now almost a 
wilderness. Mr. Franklin, in his " Present State 
of Hayti," gives the following account of the con- 
sequences of free labour in that island. " I cannot 
avoid repeating that Hayti must not be held up as 
an example of what can be accomplished by free 
labour; but that it ought rather to be the beacon to 
warn the government of England against an experi- 
ment which may prove absolutely fatal to her colo- 
nial system. If it be not wished that a fate similar 
tp that which has befallen Hayti should overtake 
our colonies, that they should be rendered wholly 
unproductive to the revenue of the country, and 
that the property invested in them should be pre- 
served from destruction, the advisers of the crown 
must pause before they listen to the ill-judged sug- 
gestions of enthusiasts; for they must banish from 
their minds the idea that the work of cultivation 
can be made productive by means of free labour. 
Such a thing appears to me impossible. The negro, 
constituted as he is, has such an aversion to labour, 
and so great a propensity for indulgence and vice, 
that no prospect of advantage can stimulate him; 
and as for emulation it has not the slightest influence 
over him. Without force he will sink into lethargy, 
and revert to his primitive savage character, and the 
only feasible and effectual plan to promote his civi- 
lization is to persist in those measures which com- 
pel him to labour, inculcate morality, and tend to 



121 

extirpate those vices which are inherent in the de- 
scendants of the African race." Of the success of 
iihe Haytien experiment it may become necessary 
to treat more fully hereafter. 'St. Domino-o, how- 
ever, is not the only example of the settled and in- 
vincible aversion of the negro in warm latitudes 
to labour. In the English West Indies the most 
rigid police system is, even in their present state of 
apprenticeship, insufficient to constrain them to the 
same amount of labour as formerly; and at our own 
colony of Liberia, the population of which has been 
selected with care, it has always been found impos- 
sible to induce the settlers to engage in agricultural, 
or any permanent and regular labour. 

Of the general productiveness of slave-labour there 
are innumerable examples. The ancient nations of 
the East owed their unbounded wealth to slave-la- 
bour. Egypt, Greece, and Rome, all densely popu- 
lated, boundless in affluence and power, were slave- 
holding nations, and owed their prosperity to slave 
labour. In our own times, the wealth of the West 
India colonies, of Brazil, of our own southern coun- 
try, particularly the south-western states, illustrates 
the productiveness of slave-labour. It is true that a 
portion of the South has not advanced recently as ra- 
pidly as many sections of the North and West. On 
examination, however, it will be found that those states 
were, up to the period of the protective policy, more 
prosperous than their sisters; and though that policy, 
joined with southern extravagance, the amount of 
labour lost in the sickly season, the loss by emigra- 
tion to the West, and the emoluments of her factor, 
the shrewder and more shifting North, has retarded 
her onward progress, we believe that the South is 
destined to rival, perhaps outstrip, her most fortu- 
nate sisters in wealth and prosperity. If the abo- 
litionists do not dissolve the bonds of our union, the 
II 



122 

North will continue to thrive on the fatness of the 
South; and all the members of our national family, 
not only united by the recollections of the past and 
the hopes of the future, by our common interest 
in the heritage of freedom and glory left by our an- 
cestors, but knit together in an intercourse of mu- 
tual benefits — will advance hand in hand to affluence 
and power. Should, however, the blows which 
have already been given, and are daily redoubled, 
succeed in severing the links that bind us together, 
the evil will be upon the North. Those who are 
tugging at the pillars of the temple of Union will, 
Sampson-like, be buried in its ruins — the South 
will remain unharmed. United and tranquil, with 
her slave-labour, and its golden produce the rich 
staples cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, &c., with a com- 
merce of her own untaxed and richly sustained by 
her immense exports, she would (were her sons 
true — and when have they proved recreant?) hold 
undisturbed her onward course to power and afflu- 
ence. She may wax poor, but slavery will never 
impoverish her; her fertile valleys may be bathed in 
blood, but, unless northern philanthropy excites it, 
it will not be shed by the hands of her slaves; she 
may become shrunken in spirit and power, craven 
and degenerate, and fall from her present high es- 
tate, but the philosophic historian will never ascribe 
her downfall to the institution of slavery. Her in- 
stitutions ^re such as have grown out of her wants, 
such as suit her situation; they have promoted her 
prosperity and will insure its continuance. If un- 
molested, she will remain tranquil, prosperous, and 
happy; if disturbed, she may lose her tranquillity, 
but is fully capable of maintaining her own safety, 
and promoting her own welfare. Her course is on- 
ward; and the raving of the fanatics will not check 
nor turn her aside. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Schemes for the removal of Slavery — Coloniza- 
tion and Abolition — History of Colonization 
— Statement of its friends, of' its opponents, 4*c. 

As the introduction of slavery into this country 
was originally opposed, its continuance has also been 
deplored, by many of our citizens. At the North, 
where there was no inducement to continue to hold 
their slaves in bondage, they were gradually eman- 
cipated. In the South, where the number of the slaves 
was so great as to render abolition impracticable, 
other schemes have been suggested. Many differ- 
ent plans have, at different times, been proposed; and 
those who, not having properly considered the sub- 
ject, regard negro slavery as an evil, have encour- 
aged and sustained them. Some have even urged the 
expediency of confining the slaves, and compelling 
them to labour, the sexes being separated, in Ergas- 
tula, until the race may thus be extinguished; others 
have recommended that they be conveyed to some 
distant point in our own territory, and established 
as a separate community. It would, however, be 
useless and tiresome to revive the bubbles that have 
been, at different times, raised to burst beneath the 
first touch of investigation. Of the countless plans 
suggested by the quacks who, having conjectured 
that slavery was an evil, have also conjectured a 
cure, the only ones which have survived, are colo- 
nization on the western coast of Africa, and thCj 



124 

immediate or gradual abolition of slavery without 
expatriation. 

The scheme of colonization was conceived at an 
early period, and appears to have been regarded 
with favour by some of the greatest minds our coun- 
try has produced. Mr. Jefferson, as early as 1777, 
is said to have suggested colonization. In 1801 the 
legislature of Virginia, a state that appears to have 
been always restive on the subject of slavery, re- 
commended colonization. In 181(3 the same body 
passed the following resolutions: — 

" Whereas, the general assembly of Virginia have 
repeatedly sought to obtain an asylum beyond the 
limits of the United States for such persons of co- 
lour as had been or might be emancipated under 
the laws of this commonwealth, but have hitherto 
found all their efforts frustrated, either by the dis- 
turbed state of other nations, or domestic causes 
equally unpropitious to success. 

" They now avail themselves of a period when 
peace has healed the wounds of humanity, and the 
principal nations of Europe have concurred with 
the government of the United States in abolishing 
the African slave trade (a traffic which this com- 
monwealth, both before and since the revolution, 
zealously sought to exterminate,) to renew this 
effort, and do therefore 

" Resolve, That the executive be requested to 
correspond with the president of the United States, 
for the purpose of obtaining a territory on the west- 
ern coast of Africa, or at some other place not within 
any of the states or territorial governments of the 
United States, to serve as an asylum for such per- 
sons of colour as are now free and inay desire the 
same, and for those who may hereafter be emanci- 
pated within this commonwealth; and that the sena- 
tors and representatives of this state in the congress 



125 

of the United States be requested to use their best 
efforts to aid the president of the United States in 
the attainment of the above objects. 

" Provided, That no contract or arrangement re- 
specting such territory shall be obligatory on this 
commonwealth, until ratified b}^ the legislature." 

In December, 1816, the American Colonization 
Society was organized at Washington under the 
auspices of Dr. Finley of New Jersey, Hon. C. F. 
Mercer, F. S. Key, and some others. Measures 
were taken as early as possible to select a site for 
the proposed colony. In ISIS, Messrs. Mill and 
Burgess visited Africa by the way of England, and 
gained much important information. In 1S20, the 
first expedition sailed, and attempted to make a 
settlement on the Island of Sherbo. The climate 
proved fatal to the settlers, and the effort failed. In 
1821 another expedition sailed, and the colonists 
remained at Sierra Leone until a settlement could 
be made. In 1821, Dr. Eli Ayres, with Captain 
Stockton of the U. S. navy, purchased from the 
natives the territory called Montserado in the name 
of the Society. In 1822, a settlement was effected, 
and the colony placed under the government of Mr. 
Ashmun, as agent of the Society. The first year 
of the settlement was marked by many disasters. 
The natives assailed the colony in great force, but 
were repelled with intrepidity and success. In 1824 
a form of government was adopted by the colonists. 
The board of managers of the Society appoint the 
colonial agent, who is a white man: all the other 
officers are men of colour, the most important of 
which are elected annually. Mr. Ashmun continued 
to preside over the colony until 1828, when he was 
constrained by illness, which soon proved fatal, to 
return to America, He was succeeded by Dr. 
11* 



126 

Richard Randall, who shortly after died, when Dr. 
Mechlin became agent* 

* The following account of the colony is extracted from 
an address published by the Board in 1832. 

" Description of the Colony. — The name of Liberia has been 
given to the colony, because it is the land of the freed. Cape 
Montserado, on which stands the principal town (Monrovia, 
so called, in honour of President Monroe,) lies in about the 
sixth degree of North latitude. The tract of country under 
the colonial jurisdiction, has been obtained by fair purchase, 
froni time to time, from the natives, and extends from one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred miles along the coast, and 
indefinitely into the interior. Two important districts. Grand 
Bassa and Cape Mount, have recently been acquired in this 
way. There are several rivers, most of them small however. 
The St. Paul's is half a mile wide at its mouth, and were it 
not obstructed by falls, would admit of boat navigation two 
or three hundred miles. The three principal towns are Mon- 
rovia and Caldwell, about seven miles distant on the St. 
Paul's (which is connected with the Montserado river, by 
Stockton Creek,) and Mills and Burgess, (or by contraction 
Millsburg,) about fifteen miles above Caldwell, on the same 
river. The houses in Monrovia are substantially built, many 
of them of stone. 

'-''FertiUly and .Agriculture. — In their address the colonists 
say: ' A more fertile soil, and a more productive country, so 
far as it is cultivated, there is not, we believe, on the face of 
the earth.' Dr. Randall says, ' that the land on both sides 
of Stockton Creek is equal in every respect, to the best on 
the southern rivers of the United States.' 

" Mr. Ashmun thus enumerates the animals and products of 
the country : horses, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, ducks, geese, 
chickens, and Guinea fowls, in abundance: fish in the great- 
est plenty ; plantains, bananas, vines, lemons, oranges, tama- 
rinds, mangoes, cashew, prunes, guava, pine-apple, grape, 
cherry, and a species of peach ; sweet potato, cassada, yams, 
cocoa, ground-nuts, arrow-root, egg-plant, okra, every va- 
riety of beans and peas, cucumbers and melons, pumpkins, 
&c. &c.; rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, millet, pepper, ex- 
cellent coffee, sugar, cotton, and indigo. Indeed sugar, cot- 
ton, coffee, and indigo, grow wild. 

" Climate^ and Health of the Settlers. — In the early years of 
the colony, want of good houses, the great fatigues and dan- 
gers of the settlers, the discouragements they met with, their 



127 

The society soon numbered amon<5 its active 
friends, many of the most ilkistrious names in the 
republic. Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, jNIonroe, 
Judge Washington, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, 
W. H. Crawford, and many others, gave the scheme 

ignorance of the proper mode of living, and of the best reme- 
dies, aided the other causes of sickness, and produced great 
mortality. But those times are past and forgotten. Their 
houses and circumstances are now comfortable; they are 
abundantly supplied with medical assistance ; and for the 
last five years (as stated in the address of the colonists in 
1827,) not one person in forty, from the middle and southern 
states, has died from change of climate. The effect is most 
severely felt by those from the northern states, or from moun- 
tainous parts of the middle states ; but experience has proved 
that, with ordinary prudence, no danger is to be apprehended 
even by persons from those places, who are sober and have 
no radical defects of constitution. As the country becomes 
more thickly settled and better cultivated, it wib, like all 
other new countries, become more healthy. From the past 
mortality or present sickliness, no discouragement will be felt 
by those who have read an account of the early attempts to 
found colonies in this favoured land. At a little distance 
from the sea, the land becomes more elevated, and there is 
the best reason to believe that the causes of disease on the 
coast are unknow n in the interior. On these highlands, set- 
tlements will doubtless soon be established. Under date of 
the 28th of April, 1832, Dr. Mechlin writes — 'among the emi- 
grants by the Yolador, Criterion, Orion, James Perkins, Mar- 
garet, Mercer, and Crawford, the number of deaths will not 
average quite four per cent.' For emigrants from the wide ex- 
tent of our southern country, the climate may be pronounced 
salubrious." 

" Commerce. — The colonists are actively engaged in trade, 
disposing of goods supplied by this country and England, 
for dye woods, ivory, hides, gold, palm oil, and rice, which 
they purchase by barter from the natives. The nett profits 
on the two articles of wood and ivory, passing through the 
hands of the settlers, from January 1st, 1826, to June 15, 
1826, was ^530,786. In 1829, the" exports of African pro- 
ducts amounted to $60,000. In 1831, forty^six vessels, twen- 
ty-one of which were American, visited the colony in the 
course of the year, and the amount of exports was §88,911, 



128 

of colonization, their active and ardent support. 
Auxiliary societies were formed; agents were ap- 
pointed; the legislatures of many of the states en- 
couraged the effort; and the funds of the society 
became sufficient to authorize vigorous measures, 
to promote the object for which it was formed. 

The views of the friends of the scheme are fully 
and eloquently set forth in the address, delivered 
by Mr. Clay, before the society at its tenth annual 
meeting. The following extracts are sufficiently 
important to warrant us in extracting them entire. 

" The object of the Society was the colonization 
of the free coloured people, not the slaves, of the 
country. Voluntary in its institution, voluntary in 
its continuance, voluntary in all its ramifications, 
all its means, purposes, and instruments are also 
voluntary. But it was said, that no free coloured 
persons could be prevailed upon to abandon the 
comforts of civilized life, and expose themselves to 
all the perils of a settlement in a distant, inhospita- 
ble, and savage country; that, if they could be in- 
duced to go on such a quixotic expedition, no terri- 
tory could be procured for their establishment as a 
colony; that the plan was altogether incompetent to 
effectuate its professed object, and that it ought to 
be rejected as the idle dream of visionary enthusiasm. 
The Society has outlived, thank God, all these dis- 
astrous predictions. It has survived to swell the 
list of false prophets. It is no longer a question of 
speculation whether a colony can or cannot be plant- 
ed from the United States of free persons of colour 
on the shores of Africa. It is a matter demonstrated. 
Such a colony in fact exists, prospers, has made suc- 
cessful war, and honourable peace, and transacts all 
the multiplied business of a civiliz^l and Christian 
community. It now has about five hundred souls, 
disciplined troops, forts, and other means of defence* 



129 

sovereignty over an extensive territory, and exerts 
a powerful and salutary influence over the neigh- 
bouring clans/' 

" The Society has experienced no difficulty in the 
acquisition of a territory, upon reasonable terms, 
abundantly sufficient for a most extensive Colony. 
And land in ample quantities, it has been ascertain- 
ed, can be procured in Africa, together with all 
rights of sovereignty, upon conditions as favourable 
as those on which the United States extinguish the 
Indian title to territory within their own limits." 

^' The Colonization Society has never imagined 
it to be practicable, or within the reach of any 
means which the several Governments of the Union 
could bring to bear on the subject, to transport the 
whole of the African race within the limits of the 
United States. Nor is that necessary to accom- 
plish the desirable objects of domestic tranquillity, 
and render us one homogeneous people. The popu- 
lation of the United States has been supposed to 
duplicate in periods of twenty-five years. That 
may have been the case heretofore, but the terms of 
duplication will be more and more protracted as we 
advance in national age; and I do not believe that 
it will be found, in any period to come, that our 
numbers will be doubled in a less term than one of 
about thirty-three and a third years. I have not 
time to enter now into details in support of this 
opinion. They would consist of those checks which 
experience has shown to obstruct the progress of 
population, arising out of its actual augmentation 
and density, the settlement of waste lands, &c. As- 
suming the period of thirty-three and a third, or 
any other number of years, to be that in which our 
population will hereafter be doubled, if, during that 
whole term, the capital of the African stock could 
be kept down, or stationary, whilst that of Euro- 



130 

pean origin should be left to an unobstructed in- 
crease, the result, at the end of the term, would be 
most propitious. — Let us suppose, for example, that 
the whole population at present of the United States 
is twelve millions, of which ten may be estimated 
of the Anglo-Saxon, and two of the African race. 
If there could be annually transported from the 
United States, an amount of the African portion 
equal to the annual increase of the whole of that 
caste, while the European race should be left to 
multiply, we should find, at the termination of the 
period of duplication, whatever it may be, that the 
relative proportions would be as twenty to two. 
And if the process were continued, during a second 
term of duplication, the proportion would be as 
forty to two — one which would eradicate every 
cause of alarm or solicitude from the breasts of the 
most timid. But the transportation of Africans, by 
creating, to the extent to which it might be carried, 
a vacuum in society, would tend to accelerate the 
duplication of the European race, who, by all the 
laws of population, would fill up the void space." 

" It will be borne in mind that the aim of the 
Society is to establish in Africa a Colony of the free 
African population of the United States; to an ex- 
tent which shall be beneficial both to Africa and 
America. The whole free coloured population of 
the United States amounted, in 1790, to 59,481; in 
1800, to 110,072; in 1810, to 186,446; and in 1820, 
to 233,530. The ratio of annual increase during 
the first term of ten years, was about eight and a 
half per cent, per annum; during the second, about 
seven per cent, per annum; and during the third, a 
little more than two and a half. The very great 
difference in the rate of annual increase, during 
those several terms, may probably be accounted for 
by the effect of the number of voluntary emancipa- 



131 

tions operating with more influence upon the total 
smaller amount of free coloured persons at the first 
of those periods, and by the facts of the insurrection 
in St. Domingo, and the acquisition of Louisiana, 
both of which occurring during the first and second 
terms, added considerably to the number of our 
free coloured population. 

" Of all descriptions of our population, that of the 
free coloured, taken in the aggregate, is the least proli- 
fic, because of the checks arising from vice and want. 
During the ten years, between 1810 and 1820, when 
no extraneous causes existed to prevent a fair com- 
petition in the increase between the slave and the 
free African race, the former increased at the rate of 
nearly three per cent, per annum, whilst the latter 
did not much exceed two and a half. Hereafter, it 
may be safely assumed, and I venture to predict 
will not be contradicted by the return of the next 
census, that the increase of the free black popula- 
tion will not surpass two and a half per cent, per 
annum. Their amount at the last census, being 
233,530, for the sake of round numbers, their annual 
increase may be assumed to be 6000, at the present 
time. Now, if this number could be annually 
transported from the United States during a term of 
years, it is evident that, at the end of that term, the 
parent capital will not have increased, but will have 
been kept down at least to what it was at the com- 
mencement of the term. Is it practicable then to 
colonize annually six thousand persons from the 
United States, without materially impairing or af- 
fecting any of the great interests of the United 
States ? This is the question presented to the judg- 
ments of the Legislative authorities of our country. 
This is the whole scheme of the Society. From 
its actual experience, derived from the expenses 
which have been incurred in transporting the per- 



132 

sons already sent to Africa, the entire average ex- 
pense of each Colonist, young and old, including 
passage money and subsistence, may be stated at 
twenty dollars per head. There is reason to believe 
that it may be reduced considerably below that sum. 
Estimating that to be the expense, the total cost of 
transporting 6000 souls annually, to Africa, would 
be ^120,000. The tonnage requisite to effect the 
object, calculating two persons to every five tons 
(which is the provision of existing law) would be 
15,000 tons. But as each vessel could probably 
make two voyages in the year, it may be reduced 
to 7,500. And as both our mercantile and military 
marine might be occasionally employed on this col- 
lateral service, without injury to the main object of 
the voyage, a further abatement might be safely 
made in the aggregate amount of the necessary ton- 
nage. The navigation concerned in the commerce 
between the Colony and the United States, (and it 
already begins to supply subjects of an interesting 
trade,) might be incidentally employed to the same 
end. 

"Is the annual expenditure of a sum no larger than 
^120,000, and the annual employment of 7,500 tons 
of shipping, too much for reasonable exertion, con- 
sidering the magnitude of the object in view ? Are 
they not, on the contrary, within the compass of 
moderate efforts ? 

" Here is the whole scheme of the Society — a 
project v/hich has been pronounced visionary by 
those who have never given themselves the trouble 
to examine it, but to which I believe most unbiassed 
men will yield their cordial assent, after they have 
investigated it." 

*^ Assuming the future increase to be at the rate 
of three per cent, per annum, the annual addition to 
the number of slaves in the United States, calculated 



133 

upon the return of the last census (1,538,128) is 
46,000. Applying the data which have been al- 
ready stated and explained, in relation to the colo- 
nization of free persons of colour from the United 
States to Africa, to the aggregate annual increase 
both bond and free of the African race, and the re- 
sult will be found most encouraging. The total 
number of the annual increase of both descriptions, 
is 52,000. The total expense of transporting that 
number to Africa, (supposing no reduction of pre- 
sent prices,) would be one million and forty thousand 
dollars, and the requisite amount of tonnage would 
be only 130,000 tons of shipping, about one-ninth 
part of the mercantile marine of the United States. 
Upon the supposition of a vessel's making two 
voyages in the )^ear, it would be reduced to one 
half, 65,000. And this quantity would be still fur- 
ther reduced, by embracing opportunites of inci- 
dental employment of vessels belonging both to the 
mercantile and military marines. 

^'But, is the annual application of ^1,040,000, 
and the employment of 65 or even 130,000 tons of 
shipping, considering the magnitude of the object, 
beyond the ability of this country ? Is there a pat- 
riot, looking forward to its domestic quiet, its happi- 
ness and its glory, that would not cheerfully con- 
tribute his proportion of the burthen to accomplish 
a purpose so great and so humane ? During the 
general continuance of the African slave trade, 
hundreds of thousands of slaves have been, in a 
single year, imported into the several countries 
whose laws authorized their admission. Notwith- 
standing the vigilance of the powers now engaged 
to suppress the slave trade, I have received infor- 
mation, that in a single year, in the single island of 
Cuba, slaves equal in amount to one half of the 
above number of 52,000 have been illicitly intro- 
12 



134 

duced. Is it possible that those who are concerned 
in an infamous traffic, can effect more than the States 
of this Union, if they were seriously to engage in 
the good work ? Is it credible — is it not a libel upon 
human nature to suppose, that the triumphs of fraud 
and violence and iniquity, can surpass those of vir- 
tue and benevolence and humanity ?" 

'^ Further, by the annual withdrawal of 52,000 
persons of colour, there would be annual space 
created for an equal number of the white race. The 
period, therefore, of duplication of the whites, by 
the laws which govern population, would be accele- 
rated." 

The friends of colonization urge the scheme on 
other grounds, many of which are entitled to atten- 
tion. 

They allege that, notwithstanding the severe 
enactments against the slave-trade, it is continued 
to a great extent, and that nothing can effectually 
suppress it but the establishment of colonies along 
the coast. This statement has not been, so far as 
we are informed, assailed. The extent of the inhu- 
man traffic is conceded; and the usefulness of the 
colony in discouraging it has been fully attested. 

It is urged also, that the influence of colonies 
along the African coast upon the savage nations can- 
not but be beneficial. The settlers will introduce 
to the benighted negro the light of Christianity and 
civilization, and rescue them from the moral dark- 
ness and physical wretchedness in which that con- 
tinent has, since the creation of the world, been 
buried. The settlements, it is supposed, will be 
missionary stations from which Christian ministers 
may operate upon the African; while the trade 
already commenced between the natives and the 
settlers, and the more intimate and amicable inter- 
course which, should the colonies prosper, will take 



135 

place hereafter, will tend greatly to impart to the 
negroes the advantages of civilization. Mr. Clay- 
thus eloquently refers to this consequence of civili- 
zation. "There is a moral fitness in the idea of 
returning to Africa her children, whose ancestors 
have been torn from her by the ruthless hand of 
fraud and violence. Transplanted in a foreign land, 
they will carry back to their native soil the rich 
fruits of religion, civilization, law and liberty. 
May it not be one of the great designs of the Ruler 
of the Universe, (whose ways are often inscrutable 
by short sighted mortals,) thus to transform an ori- 
ginal crime into a signal blessing to that most un- 
fortunate portion of the Globe." 

The commercial advantages to be derived from 
the colonization of Africa have also been urged by 
its friends as a cogent argument in favour of the 
scheme. The commerce already created is said to 
be valuable; and should the expectations of the 
friends of colonization be realized and large civilized 
and wealthy nations be raised up on the Western 
Coast of Africa, the commercial advantages to this 
country would, it is thought, be incalculably valu- 
able. 

The advance of the Society has perhaps been as 
rapid as those acquainted with the difficulties of 
colonization could have expected. The settlement 
comprises more than three thousand souls. The in- 
habitants are temperate and moral, but addicted to 
barter, and indisposed to agricultural labour. Many 
of the colonists have realized fortunes; but, in con- 
sequence of the neglect of agriculture, the settle- 
ment does not wear an air of permanence and com- 
fort Several large tracts have been added to the 
territory of the colony; and new and successful set- 
tlements have been made. The scheme has been 
extensively discussed in the periodicals of the coun- 



136 

try, and a decided feeling has been manifested in 
many sections of the Union in its favour. Several 
of the State Legislatures have extended direct pe- 
cuniary aid to promote the cause; and a number of 
the most able and influential men in the country 
continue to advocate colonization with ardour and 
confidence. 

The project is not however without its opponents. 
Within a few years past this opposition has increas- 
ed both in extent and ardour, and is still maintained 
with a vigor which endangers the efficiency and 
success of the scheme of colonization. So huge a 
scheme of benevolence, requiring immense re- 
sources, and relying almost exclusively upon indi- 
vidual benevolence, is not, however meritorious, 
prepared to sustain a vigorous and bitter opposition. 
Those who argue on the side of selfishness are gene- 
rally considered cogent and persuasive reasoners; 
and when argument unites with interest and avarice 
to withhold the hand of charity, the sense of duty 
is seldom strong enough to extend it. The friends 
of colonization continue, however, to urge it with 
spirit; its collections are large; and should it sur- 
vive the present opposition, it will perhaps come, 
strengthened and stabilitated, from the trial. 

The opponents of colonization may be divided 
into two classes. The first is composed of the 
friends of immediate abolition. They oppose colo- 
nization, as unjust to the negro, who is, they urge, 
a native of this country and entitled by the law of 
nature to immediate and unconditional emancipation, 
and to a full participation in the rights of the whites, 
without expatriation. The other class of anti-colo- 
nizationists are those, who regard all interference 
with the subject of slavery as calculated to endan- 
ger the prosperity, and disturb the tranquillity of the 
citizens of the South. 



137 

The abolitionists have succeeded in detaching 
many excited religionists from the cause of coloniza- 
tion, and also in raising on the part of the free 
coloured people a strong and almost universal pre- 
judice against the African settlement. The conse- 
quence is, that the views of the Society have been 
necessarily limited principally to the colonization 
of emancipated slaves. 

Many objections are made against the scheme of 
African colonization, which we have not space to 
present. Among others, the insalubrity of the cli- 
mate, the difficulties of colonization, the great length 
of time required to prepare the colony for the re- 
ception of any considerable number of emigrants, 
and the indisposition of the colonists to agricultural 
labour, which can alone furnish means for the sup- 
port of a large population. Many of these obsta- 
cles might be obviated, but the question of the 
practicability of colonization would still remain un- 
determined. Having given the views of Mr. Clay 
in support of the scheme, we will extract those of 
Professor Dew, on the opposite side of the question. 
Professor Dew's arguments are intended for the 
State of Virginia, but are equally applicable to any 
of the Southern States. 

"We take it for granted, that the right of the 
owner to his slave is to be respected, and, conse- 
quently, that he is not required to emancipate him, 
unless his full value is paid by the State. Let us, then 
keeping this in view, proceed to a very simple cal- 
culation of the expense of emancipation and depor- 
tation in Virginia. The slaves, by the last census 
(1830) amounted, within a small fraction, to four 
hundred and seventy thousand, the average value 
of each one of these is two hundred dollars, con- 
sequently, the whole aggregate value of the slave 
population in Virginia in 1830, was ninety-four 
12* 



138 

million dollars; and allowing for the increase since, 
we cannot err far in putting the present value at 
one hundred million dollars. The assessed value of 
all the houses and lands in the State amounts to 
two hundred and six million dollars, and these con- 
stitute the material items in the wealth of the State, 
the whole personal property besides bearing but a 
very small proportion to the value of slaves, lands, 
and houses. Now, do not these very simple statis- 
tics speak volumes upon this subject ? It is gravely 
recommended to the State of Virginia to give up a 
species of property which constitutes nearly one 
third of the wealth of the whole State, and almost 
one half of that of Lower Virginia, and with the 
remaining two thirds to encounter the additional 
enormous expense of transportation and colonization 
on the Coast of Africa. But the loss of one hun- 
dred million dollars of property is scarcely the half 
of what Virginia would lose, if the immutable laws 
of nature could suffer (as fortunately they cannot) 
this tremendous scheme of colonization to be car- 
ried into full effect. Is it not population which 
makes our lands and houses valuable? Why are lots 
in Paris and London worth more than the silver 
dollars which it might take to cover them ? Why 
are lands of equal fertility in England and France 
worth more than those of our Northern States, and 
those again worth more than our Southern soils, and 
those in turn worth more than the soils of the dis- 
tant West ? It is the presence or absence of popula- 
tion, which alone can explain the fact. It is, in 
truth, the slave labour in Virginia which gives value 
to her soil, and her habitations: take away this, and 
you pull down the atlas that upholds the whole 
system ; eject from the State the whole slave popu- 
lation, and vve risk nothing in the prediction that on 
the day in which it shall be accomplished, the worn 



139 

soils of Virginia will not bear the paltry price of 
the government lands in the West, and the Old 
Dominion will be a 'waste howling wilderness;' — 
< the grass shall be seen growing in the streets, and 
the foxes peeping from their holes.' 

" But the favourers of this scheme say they do not 
contend for the sudden emancipation and deporta- 
tion of the whole black population; they would 
send off only the increase, and thereby keep down 
the population to its present amount, while the 
whites, increasing at their usual rate, would finally 
become relatively so numerous as to render the pre- 
sence of the blacks among us for ever afterwards 
entirely harmless. This scheme which at first to 
the unreflecting seems plausible, and much less wild 
than the project of sending off the whole, is neverthe- 
less impracticable and visionary, as we think a few 
remarks will prove. It is computed that the an- 
nual increase of the slaves and free coloured popu- 
lation of Virginia is about six thousand. Let us 
first, then, make a calculation of the expense of 
purchase and transportation. At two hundred dollars 
each, the six thousand will amount in value to one mil- 
lion two hundred thousand dollars. At thirty dollars 
each for transportation, which we shall soon see is too 
little, we have the whole expense of purchase and 
transportation one million three hundred and 
eighty thousand dollars, an expense to be annually 
incurred by Virginia to keep down her black popu- 
lation to its present amount. And let us ask, is 
there any one who can seriously argue that Virginia 
can incur such an annual expense as this for the 
next twenty-five or fifty years, until the whites have 
multiplied so greatly upon the blacks, as in the 
opinion of the alarmists, for ever to quiet the fears 
of the community ? Vain and delusive hope, if any 
were ever wild enough to entertain it! Poor old 



140 

Virginia! the leader of the poverty stricken team, 
which has been for years so heavtily dragging 
along under the intolerable burthen of the Federal 
Government, must inevitably be crushed whenever 
this new weight is imposed on her, in comparison 
with which federal exactions, are light and mild. 
We should as soon expect the chamois, the hardy 
rover over Alpine regions, by his unassisted 
strength to hurl down the snowy mantle which for 
ages has clothed the lofty summit of Mount Blanc, 
as that Virginia will be ever able by her own re- 
sources, to purchase and colonize on the Coast of 
Africa six thousand slaves for any number of years 
in succession." 

<^ We have already shown that the first operation 
of the plan, if slave property were rigidly respect- 
ed, and never taken without full compensation, 
would be to put a stop to the efflux from the State 
through other channels; but this would not be the 
only eJQfect. Government, entering into the market 
with individuals, would elevate the price of slaves 
beyond their natural value, and consequently the 
raising of them would become an object of primary 
importance throughout the whole State. We can 
readily imagine that the price of slaves might be- 
come so great, that each master would do all in his 
power to encourage marriage among them — would 
allow the females entire exception from labour, that 
they might the better breed and nurse — and would 
so completely concentrate his efforts upon this ob- 
ject as to neglect other schemes, and less productive 
sources of wealth. Under these circumstances, the 
prolific African might no doubt be stimulated to 
press hard upon one of the limits above stated, 
doubling in numbers, in fifteen years; and such is 
the tendency which our abolition schemes, if seri- 
ously engaged in, will most undoubtedly produce. 



141 

They will be certain to stimulate the procreatlve 
powers of the very race which they are aiming to 
diminish; they will enlarge and invigorate the very 
monster which they are endeavouring to stifle, and 
realize the beautiful but melancholy fable of Sisyphus, 
by an eternal renovation of hope and disappoint- 
ment. If it were possible for Virginia to purchase 
and send off annually for the next twenty-five or fifty 
years 12,000 slaves, we should have very little hesi- 
tation in affirming, that the number of slaves in 
Virginia would not be at all lessened by the opera- 
tion, and at the conclusion of the period such habits 
would be generated among our blacks, that for a 
long time after the cessation of the drain, popula- 
tion might advance so rapidly, as to produce among 
us, all the calamities and miseries of an overcrowd- 
ed people." 

" But, say some, if Virginia cannot accomplish 
this work, let us call upon the general Government 
for aid — let Hercules be requested to put his shoul- 
der to the wheels, and roll us through this formida- 
ble quagmire of our difficulties. Delusive pros- 
pect! corrupting scheme! We will throw all 
constitutional difficulties out of view, and ask if 
the Federal Government can be requested to under- 
take the expense for Virginia, without encountering 
it for the whole slave holding population? And 
then, whence can be drawn the funds to purchase 
more than 2,000,000, of slaves, worth at the lowest 
calculation ^400,000,000? or if the increase alone be 
sent off, can Congress undertake, annually to purchase 
at least 60,000 slaves at an expense of ^12,000,000, 
and deport and colonize them at an expense of 
twelve or fifteen millions more? But the fabled 
hydra would be more than realized in this project. 
We have no doubt that, if the United States in good 
faith should enter into the slave markets of the 



142 

country, determined to purchase up the whole an- 
nual increase of our slaves, so unwise a project, by 
its artificial demand would immediately produce a 
rise in this property throughout the whole Southern 
country, of at least thirty-three and a third per 
cent; it would stimulate and invigorate the spring 
of black population, which, by its tremendous action, 
would set at naught the puny efforts of man, and, 
like the Grecian matron, unweave in the night 
what had been woven in the day. We might well 
calculate upon an annual increase of at least four 
and a half per cent, upon our two millions of slaves, 
if ever the United States should create the artificial 
demand which we have just spoken of; and then, in- 
stead of an increase of 60,000, there will be 90,000, 
bearing the average price of ^300 each, making the 
enormous annual expense of purchase alone 27 mil- 
lions! and difficulties, too, on the side of the colony, 
would more than enlarge with the increase of the evil 
at home. Our Colonization Society has been more 
than fifteen years at work; it has purchased, accord- 
ing to its friends, a district of country as congenial 
to the constitution of the black as any in Africa; it 
has, as we have seen, frequently over-supplied the 
Colony with emigrants; and mark the result, for it 
is worthy of all observation — there are now not 
more than 2,000 or 2,500 inhabitants in Liberia; 
and these are alarmed lest the Southampton insur- 
rection, may cause such an emigration as to inundate 
the Colony. When, then, in the lapse of time, can we 
ever expect to build up a colony which can receive 
sixty or ninety thousand slaves per annum? And if 
this should ever arrive, what guarantee could be fur- 
nished us that their ports would always be open to our 
emigrants? Would law or compact answer? Oh, no! 
some legislator in the plentitude of his wisdom, 
might arise, who could easily and truly persuade 



143 

his countrymen that these annual importations of 
blacks were 7iuisances, and the laws of God, what- 
ever might be those of men, would justify their 
abatement. And the drama would be wound 
up in this land of promise and expectation, by 
turning the cannon's mouth against the liberated 
emigrant and deluded philanthropist. The scheme 
of colonizing our blacks on the Coast of Africa, or 
any where else, by the United States, is thus seen 
to be more stupendously absurd than even the Vir- 
ginia project. King Canute the Dane, seated on the 
sea-shore, and ordering the rising flood to recede 
from his royal feet, was not guilty of more vanity 
and presumption than the Government of the 
United States would manifest, in the vain effort of 
removing and colonizing the annual increase of our 
blacks. So far from being able to remove the whole 
annual increase every year, we shall not be enabled 
to send off a number sufficiently great to check 
even the geometrical rate of increase. Our black 
population is now producing sixty thousand per an- 
num, and next year we must add to this sum 
eighteen hundred, which the increment alone is 
capable of producing, and the year after, the incre- 
ment upon the increment, &c. Now, let us throw 
out of view for a moment, the idea of grappling 
with the whole annual increase, and see whether, 
by colonization we can expect to turn this geomet- 
rical increase into an arithmetical one. We will 
then take the annual increase 60,000, as our capital, 
and it will be necessary to send off the increase 
upon this, 1,800, to prevent the geometrical increase 
of the whole black population. Let us then, for a 
moment, inquire whether the abolitionists can ex- 
pect to realize this petty advantage. 

"Mr. Bacon admits that 1,000 emigrants now 
thrown into Liberia would ruin it. We believe that 



144 

every reflecting, sober member of the Colonization 
Society, will acknowledge that five hundred an- 
nually, are fully as many as the colony can now 
receive. We will assume this number, though no 
doubt greatly beyond the truth; and we will admit 
further, what we could easily demonstrate to be 
much too liberal a concession, that the capacity of 
the Colony for the reception of emigrants, may be 
made to enlarge in a geometrical ratio, equal to that 
of the rate of increase of the blacks in the United 
States. Now with these very liberal concessions on 
our part, let us examine into the effect of the Colo- 
nization scheme. At the end of the first year, we 
shall have for the amount of the 60,000, increasing 
at the rate of three and a-half per cent., 61,800; and 
subtracting 500 we shall begin the second year with 
the number of 61,300, which, increasing at the rate 
of three and a-half per centum, gives 63,139 for the 
amount at the end of the second year. Proceeding 
thus, we obtain, at the end of twenty-five years, for 
the amount of the 60,000, 101,208. The number 
taken away, that is the sum of 500+500X1,003+ 
500x1,0032 &c. will be 18,197. It is thus seen 
that, in spite of the efforts of the Colonization 
scheme, the bare annual increase of our slaves, will 
produce 41,208 more than can be sent off; which 
number of course must be added to the capital of 
60,000; and long, very long, before the Colony in 
Africa, upon our system of calculation ever could 
receive the increase upon this accumulating capital, 
its capacity as a recipient would be checked by the 
limitation of territory and the rapid filling up of 
the population, both by emigration and natural in- 
crease. And thus by a simple arithmetical calcula- 
tion, we may be convinced that the effort to check 
even the geometrical rate of increase, by sending 
off the increment upon the annual increase of our 



145 

slaves, is greatly more than we can accomplish, and 
must inevitably terminate in disappointment — more 
than realizing the fable of the frog and the ox — for 
in this case we should have the frog swelling, not 
for the purpose of rivalling the ox in size, but to 
swallow him down horns and all! 

" Seeing, then, that the effort to send away the in- 
crease on even the present increase of our slaves, 
must be vain and fruitless — how stupendously ab- 
surd must be the project, proposing to send off the 
whole increase, so as to keep down the negro popu- 
lation at its present amount! There are some things 
which man arrayed in all his ^' brief authority" — 
cannot accomplish, and this is one of them. Colo- 
nization schemers, big and busy in the management 
of all their little machinery and gravely proposing 
it as an engine, by which our black population may 
be sent to the now uncongenial home of their ances- 
tors, across an ocean of thousands of miles in 
width, but too strongly reminds us of the vain man, 
who, in all the pomp and circumstance of power, 
ordered his servile attendants to stop the rise of 
ocean's tide by carrying off its accumulating waters. 
Emigration has rarely checked the increase of popu- 
lation, by directly lessening its number — it can only 
do it by the abstraction of capital and by paralyz- 
ing the spring of population, — and then it blights and 
withers the prosperity of the land. The population 
of Europe has not been thinned by emigration to 
the New World — the province of Andalusia in 
Spain, which sent out the greatest number of emi- 
grants to the Islands and to Mexico and Peru, has 
been precisely the district in Spain which has in- 
creased its population most rapidly. Ireland now 
sends forth a greater number of emigrants than any 
other country in the world, and yet the population 
13 



146 

of Ireland is now increasing faster than any other 
population of Europe!" 

The scheme of colonization has heen popular in 
this country, and is still clung to with partial fond- 
ness. Those who are prejudiced against domestic 
slavery and averse to the presence of a negro popu- 
lation in the country, and who regard the mad pro- 
ject of emancipation in its proper light, view the 
plan of colonization as the only remedy for what 
they consider a national evil. They are perhaps 
correct in regarding it as the best plan which has 
been suggested: but whether the object desired — the 
removal of the negro race from this country — be 
within the scope of any justifiable exertion of hu- 
man energy, remains to be determined. Many of 
the objections urged against colonization might be 
obviated. There is no necessity for adhering to 
the present experiment if a better can be suggested. 
If the object desired can be better, easier, or sooner 
attained by colonization elsewhere, than in Africa; 
if a healthier or cheaper site can be selected, there 
is no reason why Liberia should not be abandoned. 
It is unfair to argue against the scheme from the 
errors and misfortunes of the present colony — 
errors and misfortunes from which another colony 
might be exempt. That colonization is practicable, 
every page of history demonstrates. Our own ex- 
istence answers all objections on that score. The 
success of the English at New South Wales, and in 
all sections of the habitable world, proves that large 
and flourishing colonies, sufficient for the bases of 
future empires, may, even by a moderate exertion 
of the energies of a commercial nation, be estab- 
lished. But the question of the practicability of 
removing the negro race, or its increase, from this 
country, remains to be settled. The great obsta- 
cles alleged, those which no change of the plan 



147 

could obviate, and which appear appallingly formid- 
able are, briefly, as follows: 

1. The expense of the scheme. To purchase and 
transport 60,000 slaves annually (and the increase 
is now more than that number) would cost, it is 
supposed, ^25,000,000. How is this to be raised? 
Private benevolence cannot even attempt it. The 
slave-holding States will not undertake it, for it is 
not only beyond their power, but would, if at- 
tempted, utterly ruin them. Shall the General 
Government undertake it? The Constitution will 
not sanction it. If it would, or if it could be 
changed, where or how could that sum be raised? 
A direct tax would not be borne. If raised by 
duties on imports, the burthen would fall upon the 
South and a double ruin be thus visited upon that 
hapless and persecuted section of our country. The 
sale of public lands would in the last resort be look- 
ed to; and if adequate to the object, would only be 
an indirect mode of impoverishing the country. 
Our people possess such elasticity and enterprize, 
that they can bear what would crush any other: but 
could they, without the worst afflictions, endure the 
loss of the labouring population of the South, and 
pay for that loss at the rate of upwards of 25 mil- 
lion dollars per annum, for an indefinite period? 

2. The second obstacle is the difficulties attend- 
ant on colonization under the most favourable cir- 
cumstances; the fearful expense of nursing an in- 
fant colony into vigor; and the very great time that 
must elapse before it can have attained sufficient 
maturity to bear an annual access of 60,000 to its 
numbers. 

3. The habits of the negro render it doubtful 
whether a successful colony of that race can ever, 
under the most auspicious circumstances, be effect- 
ed. They will not ivork without compulsion; and 



148 

colonization requires severe and continued toil. If 
the negro, when left to himself, can be induced 
to labour, or withheld from relapsing into barbar- 
ism — it remains to be proven. No such case has yet 
occurred. 

4. Will the South consent to relinquish her slaves? 
Will she consent to contribute her own money to 
buy her own property? Is she convinced, or can 
she be persuaded to believe, that her lands can be 
cultivated without negro labour? or could she con- 
sent to relinquish that labour without seeing her 
rich soil relapse into a wilderness? 

5. The great difficulty, however, appears to be, 
the tendency of the natural increase to swell with 
the increase of the deportation. The law of po- 
pulation, by which the chasm left in a country by 
emigration is filled up by the increased activity of 
procreation, appears to be generally conceded, and 
is beyond the reach of philosophers and legislators. 
Unless the position assumed by the anti-coloniza- 
tionists on this point can be refuted, apprehensions 
may be rationally entertained that the effort made 
to remove the slave population will only tax and 
enfeeble the country, without advancing one step 
towards the result desired. 

Whatever may be the advantages or disadvan- 
tages of colonization, recent events have made the 
South indisposed to the agitation of emancipation 
in any of its shapes. At present the South is satis- 
fied with her domestic institutions, and seeks no 
change. In answer to the colonizationists of the 
North, she bids them proceed in their work, colo- 
nize their own free blacks, the most degraded, dan- 
gerous, and unhappy population in our country — 
and when that is effected, it will be time to decide 
on the proposal of emancipating and deporting the 
slaves of the South. If it be urged that the free 



149 

blacks have a right to choose for themselves, and 
decline emigration, it may be answered, that, if the 
slave has a right to freedom, he may demand it 
unconditionally, and would be equally averse to 
leaving his native land. Unless the scheme of colo- 
nization can offer advantages sufficient to invite emi- 
gration, it must be abandoned, or sustained by coer- 
cive transportation, and in reference to the adoption 
of such measures, the different sections of our coun- 
try are situated alike. If the deportation of the 
blacks be expedient, practicable, and proper, let the 
North so approve it by the colonization of their 
blacks — and the South will be then better enabled 
to determine upon the scheme. 

We cannot, however, dismiss this subject, without 
doing justice to the motives and feelings of the found- 
ers and friends of colonization. The scheme was 
conceived in an anxious and enlarged spirit of pa- 
triotism. Its objects are such as appeal, with irre- 
sistible force, to the heart of every American, Chris- 
tian, and philanthropist. Its friends have manifested 
in its support a zeal, liberality, and disinterestedness 
which cannot be sufficiently praised. That such a 
scheme should have received, from the voluntary 
contributions of individuals, a sufficient sum to ad- 
vance it to its present stage, is a fact honourable to 
the American people; and those who have yielded 
the colony, in this country, their disinterested sup- 
port — those who have, on the pestilential shores of 
Africa, fallen victims to the cause — merit the grati- 
tude and veneration of every friend of humanity. 
Time must determine the success of their efforts; 
but of their justice, purity, and patriotism, the white 
man and the slave, the North and South, America 
and Africa, will unite to bear grateful testimony. 
13* 



CHAPTER XII. 



Abolition of Slavery in the United States. Ob- 
jects and designs of the Jiholitionists. 

We will now consider the scheme of emancipa- 
tion — a scheme which, but a few years since, found 
our country united, tranquil and happy, and which, 
in that brief period, has planted in her bosom dis- 
trust, jealousy, rage and terror — which has endan- 
gered the industry of the North, the security of life 
in the South, and has shaken to its very centre the 
Government of our common country. 

The object of those who have espoused the cause 
of the slave is averred to be emancipation. They 
pronounce his bondage a sin against heaven, and 
claim the freedom of every negro m the country — 
young and old, male and female, ignorant and edu- 
cated. Universal and sweeping emancipation is the 
object of their efforts; and they express their de- 
termination never to remit their exertions until the 
two millions of slaves in the South are released 
from all restraint. 

This emancipation is claimed immediately. 
They will not submit to any gradual measures for 
the attainment of their wishes. The word is to be 
spoken by these necromancers in philanthropy, and 
the chains of the 2,250,000 slaves are to be shiver- 
ed, as by one blow. The negro is to be instanta- 
neously released, and turned forth, without the in- 
^ telligence to direct his conduct, the habits of self 



151 

restraint to withhold him from the brutal gratifica- 
tion of animal passions, or even the means of sav- 
ing himself from starvation. When asked, what 
will be the consequences of so mad and precipitate 
a movement, they inform us that consequences do 
not enter into their calculations — slavery is a sin, of 
which the slave-holder should repent, not gradually, 
but at once — the consequences of his repentance 
rest with Providence. That we may not misrepre- 
sent their views on this important point, we give 
the following extract from one of the publications 
of the American Anti-Slavery Society. 

<^ The safety of the remedy. 

*0h, but immediate emancipation would be un- 
safe, — the slave would butcher his master and fill 
the land with rapine and murder.' 

Suppose, said Mr. vS. the intelligence should 
reach this city to-day that the slaves had risen in 
insurrection and were scattering dismay and death 
through the South. Would not the veriest child 
know the cause? ' They are fighting for their 
freedom' would be the universal cry. Give the 
slave his freedom, then; will he fight because you 
give it to him? First, he fights because he is robbed 
of liberty, and when it is restored, he fights because 
he's got it." 

The following is from the Anti-Slavery Re- 
porter: — ^^ Gradual Abolition, an indefinite term, 
but which is understood to imply the draining away 
drop by drop of the great ocean of wrongs, — pluck- 
ing ofi" at long intervals some straggling branches 
of the moral Upas — holding out to unborn gene- 
rations the shadow of a hope which the present 
may never feel, — gradually ceasing to do evil; 
gradually refraining from robbery, lust and murder: 



152 

— in brief, obeying a short-sighted and criminal 
policy rather than the commands of God.'' 

The immediate emancipation, thus claimed for 
the blacks, is required to be unconditional. They 
admit no restraint upon the negro. He is to be 
turned loose at once. No barrier, no bond, no 
check, — nothing to guard the negroes from their 
own improvidence and passions, nothiiig to protect 
the master or his wife and daughters from the savage 
passions, the lust, revenge and cruelty of the brutal 
and unchained slave. The abolitionists have no 
doubt read of the Roman Senators who opened their 
gates to the Gauls, and received them in state, ex- 
pecting to subdue their fierce passions into awe and 
gentleness; they have perhaps heard also of the fana- 
tic, who, in the confidence of religious insanity, 
caused himself to be exposed to lions. The}^ have, 
however, it seems, forgotten that the Romans were 
slaughtered and their city burned; and that the poor 
bigot was devoured without scruple by the hungry 
lions. They would, with the same confidence and 
the same wisdom, unloose the ignorant negro upon 
the fair and gentle ones of the South, and, stand- 
ing at a safe distanec, would watch the result of 
the fearful experiment! 

The following is another extract from the publi- 
cation quoted above. 

'' Turning loose. 

'But would you turn the slave loose?' Loose! 
What does the objector mean? Turn the slave 
loose! No. We turn freemen loose. We dont un- 
chain the tiger, but we strike off his chain, and by 
that act make him a lamb, and then turn him loose." 

Such is the childish and wretched device by 
which the abolitionists evade an objection so start- 
ling, so awfulj so full of calamity to the race, that 



153 

it would shake a fiend from his purpose, and visit his 
bosom with the strugglings of remorse and com- 
passion. The abolitionist, however, when told that 
he is about to deluge his native land with blood, 
receives the warning with a quibble, and turns tran- 
quilly to his work of horror. 

The emancipation, thus urged, is expected to be 
attained without compensation to the master. It is 
of no consequence that not merely individuals, but 
States, would be thus beggared; that those gentle 
beings, who have been nurtured with all the soli- 
citude of affection, and treated with the homage of 
Southern chivalry — that those fair creatures, whose 
guardians 

Would not permit the winds of Heaven 
Visit their cheeks too roughly, — 

thus fostered, are, by Northern philanthropists to be 
plunged into the most sordid poverty, and, as they 
are inferior to the blacks in capacity for toil, to be 
degraded beneath those who have heretofore minis- 
tered to their wants. The slave-holder, says the 
abolitionist, is a "robber," a *^ felon," a "man- 
stealer," &c., and has no right to expect that, when 
deprived of his victim, he will be paid for his past 
crimes in the shape of compensation or ransom! 
The fanatics are marvellously philanthropic: they 
would beggar and ruin the citizens of the South to 
realize their childish abstractions; but have not yet 
attained that point of delusion which would prompt 
them to bear a share of the burthen. Men can 
afford to be charitable, who give away the property 
of others; and none urge self-denial so ardently as 
those who are not called upon to participate in the 
sacrifice. The abolitionists, in advocating emanci- 
pation without compensation, do not forget, but do 
not regard, the fact, that the slaves have fallen into 



\ 



154 

the hands of their present owners as jiroperty^ 
that die laws of the Southern States, the laws of 
the General Government, and even the laws of the 
Northern States, regard them and respect them, as 
property. These facts are wholly immaterial to 
the abolitionists. The obligation of justice, the 
sanction of the laws, the rights of humanity, are 
subjects of equal indifference to those who are pre- 
pared to stride over the graves of millions of their 
brethren, over the ruins of their Government and 
country, to the consummation of their visionary 
and perilous schemes. 

But the abolitionists do not pause at emancipa- 
tion. Their demands go further. They require 
for the slave, not merely his freedom, but an elevation 
to all the political privileges of his master. It may 
be observed that the abolition party is constituted 
mostly of men, who are opposed to an extension of 
the political powers of the whites, to universal suf- 
frage, and to that policy which contemplates politi- 
cal equality; they have generally been found op- 
posed to what are considered the liberal doctrines 
and measures of this country, and are, in some cases, 
the remains of those who opposed the American 
revolution: yet, when the blacks are interested, 
their fears of popular powder vanish; the ignorance 
of the blacks, their incapacity, their want of politi- 
cal or moral principles constitute no objections to 
their political elevation. This disposition, it will 
be seen, is manifested throughout, by the abolition- 
ists. They have, from some strange perversion of 
nature, acquired an affection for the black which 
has blunted their sensibilities for their own race; 
and, in case of opposing interests, they uniformly 
espouse the cause of the negro against the white man. 

In claiming, for the blacks of the South, political 
equality with the whites, they of course include the 



155 

right of arming and disciplining themselves. The ne- 
groes might, therefore, immediately after the consum- 
mation of the abolitionist's designs, meet and make ar- 
rangements for the military execution of the whites. 
With the sanction of the law, with arms, ammuni- 
tion, discipline, and savage ferocity, they would pro- 
bably outdo the horrors of St. Domingo. But what 
is that to the pious abolitionists? 

The right of suffrage, and the right to hold office, 
are of course included in the benevolent scheme of 
the fanatics. The first fruits of abolition would be 
the extensive emigration of the whites. The blacks 
would be thus rendered a majority; and going to 
the polls with their prejudice against the rival race, 
(a prejudice which no power under Heaven has re- 
moved, or can remove, in any country) the whole 
civil and military power would fall into their hands. 
Of the extent of their qualifications for the safe ex- 
ercise of this power, it is unnecessary to speak; but 
with this mass of ignorance, prejudice and savage 
passion in the high places of the Southern Govern- 
ments, what would become of the whites? The abo- 
litionists neither know nor care. Nor is the North 
wholly uninterested in this view of the case. A 
number of the States of our republic would become 
negro communities; they would send black repre- 
sentatives into Congress; and as they would, pro- 
bably, by their close union against the whites, attain 
great power, they might give us a black President. 
'<To this COMPLEXION must we come at last!" 

Should the reader be incredulous on the points 
referred to, should he consider it impossible that hu- 
man delusion, even under the impulses of a heady 
fanaticism, can rush into absurdities so gross, and 
disgusting, we will, to determine his doubts, refer 
him to the organs of the party, to the declarations 
of their conventions, to the resolutions of their 



156 

meetings, to the articles of their Constitutions, and 
to the freely expressed sentiments of the advocates 
and supporters of the abolition scheme. 

Another object has been extensively attributed to 
them. We refer to the sexual amalgamation of the 
two races. We are unwilling to press this charge. 
The design, has, without a doubt, been freely avow- 
ed by some individuals among the abolitionists, and 
tacitly countenanced by many more. It is well 
known, that in New York the prominent and 
wealthy advocates of abolition have given dinners, 
and other parties, at which the sexes, and races were 
studiously mingled. It is well known, that the 
social habits of many encourage the most intimate, 
equal, and familiar intercourse between the two 
colours of diflferent sexes. It is well known, that 
matrimonial connexions of the unnatural character 
referred to, have not been discouraged; and that, 
though the abolitionists have been frequently and 
forcibly charged with the design of encouraging 
such connexions, their denials have been but late, 
faint, and partial.* From all these facts it is diffi- 
cult to escape the belief that the abolitionists, if not 
decidedly and actively favourable to amalgamation, 
are by no means opposed to it. 

♦ " Let it be the glory of our sons and daughters," says 
one of the reports of Anti-Slavery Society, " to have been 
educated in Seminaries which were open to worthy appli- 
cants, without regard to complexion.^'' 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Character of Prominent Abolitionists — Garrison, 
Tappan, Thompson, &c. — General character of 
the party. 

But a few years have elapsed since the com- 
mencement of the abolition movement. It origi- 
nated in a few heated and disturbed minds, and was 
urged in the face of every obstacle. Wm. Lloyd 
Garrison, Lundy, and some others, who conceived 
themselves the chosen instruments of accomplish- 
ing abolition, proclaimed their peculiar doctrines 
with an ardour, which, if it did not excite respect, 
at least attracted attention. Garrison, the most 
talented and rabid of the corps, soon became noto- 
rious. In the fury of his zeal he did not scruple 
to borrow the aid of fiction; and, at times, indulged 
his talent for invective, at the expense of truth, and 
of the character of respectable citizens. The diffi- 
culties into which this unfortunate propensity 
plunged him, only excited his ardour anew. The 
strict confinement and low diet to which the ir- 
reverend administrators of the law consigned him, 
did not allay the violence of his zeal. He regarded 
his misfortune as a partial martyrdom. It certain- 
ly had one advantage — it lifted him to an elevation 
which, like that of the pillor}^, rendered him the 
observed of all observers. He renewed his denun- 
ciations with spirit. He raved, and the world laugh- 
14 



158 

ed; but in the end he proved that, so ricketty and un- 
stable a thing is the world, even the efforts of a 
madman can disturb it. He gained disciples — what 
fanatic ever raved without converts? — and soon be- 
came an object of attention to the crack-brained 
enthusiasts and antiquated ladies of the whole land. 
The Colonization Society had, by agitating the sub- 
ject, prepared the country for the coming of this 
second Peter the Hermit; and the crusade preached 
by him against the institutions of the South, found 
supporters and advocates. At length, he enlisted a 
sufficient force in behalf of abolition, to enable him 
to visit England, and crave foreign influence against 
the laws and lives of his fellow countrymen. Eng- 
land was herself reeling under the potions of 
quacks and enthusiasts, and lent a willing ear to the 
crazed abstractions, wild appeals, and exaggerated 
statements, of Garrison. He found himself in his 
element. He preached against his country to ap- 
plauding multitudes; he denounced Washington as 
a robber, because a slave-holder; characterized the 
American Constitution as a guilty and blood-stained 
instrument, because it recognized the domestic laws 
of the South; and, in short, indulged, to his heart's 
content, in foul and frothy invective against all that 
is dear and sacred to Americans. Having suffi- 
ciently blackened his country abroad, he returned 
to renew his treasonable efforts at home. He was 
received by the fanatics with rapture; and the work 
was resumed with fresh ardour. The efforts of 
these conspirators, at their midnight meetings, 
where the bubbling cauldron of abolition was filled 
with its pestilential materials, and the fire beneath 
kindled by the breath of the fanatics, has often re- 
minded us of the witch scene in Macbeth. Their 
chorus is peculiarly in character for the amalgama- 
tionists. 



159 

" Black spirits and white, 

Red spirits and gray, 
Mingle, mingle, mingle. 

You that mingle may." 

It requires no excited imagination to conceive 
them gathered in their secret councils, where, at 
first, a few half-crazed enthusiasts, with a bevy of 
female fanatics, met to hatch and prepare this pre- 
cious scheme. In such a conclave, assembled for 
such a purpose, the incantation of the scene referred 
to, would have been wholly appropriate. 

" For a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble. 
Double, double, toil and trouble. 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble I" 

In these scenes we may suppose that Garrison, 
gloomy, wild, and malignant, was the ruling spirit. 
His religious madness, his vehement cant and vio- 
lence of spirit naturally gained for him the mastery 
in their councils. Whatever may be the character 
of his coadjutors. Garrison has, in his whole career, 
betrayed the worst purposes allied to the worst 
passions. His writings have been blackened with 
the vilest slanders, and the most vindictive abuse. 
Indeed, so vehement, rancorous and fiend-like have 
been his exhibitions of passion against his oppo- 
nents, that most persons have considered, and do 
still consider, him insane. It is a probable and 
certainly a charitable supposition; for if he is to be 
considered as strictly accountable for his ravings, he 
must be Held in general execration. The following 
extract from his writings is a specimen of his style, 
and certainly affords no evidence of the soundness 
of either his head or his heart. He addresses the 
slave-holders. The reader will be reminded of the 
celebrated sermon of Maw-worm. 



160 

''Ye crafty calculators! Ye hard-hearted incor- 
rigible sinners! Ye greedy and relentless robbers! 
Ye contemners of justice and mercy! Ye trembling, 
pitiful, pale-faced usurpers! My soul spurns you 
with unspeakable disgust!" 

The style of Garrison is turgid, but often effec- 
tive. His compositions appear intended to operate 
principally upon the ignorant blacks; and are filled 
with declamation, denunciation and cant. In abus- 
ing his opponents, he exhibits a frantic and frontless 
disregard of the decencies of the press. In advo- 
cating his doctrines, he pauses at no difficulty. If 
good men sanction slavery — they are robbers; if 
the Constitution maintains it — it must be crushed; 
if the Union is an obstacle — it must be overthrown. 
He never writes without raving; he even reasons 
like a bedlamite; and in his paper, which has great 
influence over the blacks, he has done much to ex- 
cite a spirit of insubordination and violence. 

Until recently, these outrages were allowed to 
pass unpunished; but the time has at length arrived 
when a wronged and insulted people will no longer 
permit these madmen to tamper with the peace and 
welfare of our country. The citizens of Boston 
recently took possession of the person of Garrison, 
with a view to summary punishment, and were only 
deterred by compassion, from bestowing on him 
the honorary ointment and robe which has, time 
immemorial, been decreed in the East to traitors. 
He was, however, committed to prison as a pro- 
tection from the just indignation of the people, and 
in the morning escaped from the city in disguise. 

Perhaps, after Garrison, the noted Arthur Tap- 
pan solicits the next place in the roll of the aboli- 
tionists. He is a well known and wealthy mer- 
chant of New York, who has become affluent by 



161 

the patronage of those whom he is so eager to ex- 
pose to the horrors of a servile insurrection. He 
is generally described as an amiable, weak, w^ell- 
meaning man, whose limited portion of intellect 
has been turned topsy-turvy by religious excite- 
ment. He has not sufficient mind to originate, or 
resist, any religious delusion. He is made the dupe 
of every fanatic or impostor, who thunders religious 
denunciations in his ears. New York appears to 
have been for some years afflicted with a prevailing 
tendency to fanaticism. Not a fanatic so stupid, 
but in New York he could find admirers; not an 
impostor so degraded, but in New Y'ork he could 
enlist followers. Nor has this weakness been con- 
fined to the ignorant alone. Col. Stone's life of 
Matthias, informs us, that the delusion has ascend- 
ed to the very highest ranks of society; and 
even Matthias found his dupes and victims among 
the intelligent and wealthy merchants of New 
York. Of this class of fanatics, perhaps the most 
distinguished is the President of A. A. S. Society. 
The able and fearless editor of the New York 
Courier and Enquirer, a print that merits the grati- 
tude of every Southron, for its early, consistent and 
inflexible opposition to the abolitionists, in an article 
on Fanaticism, holds the following language. 

'^Let our fathers of families — our upright, ho- 
nest educated, thousands be convinced, and act 
while there is yet time for action ! Let them shut 
up the doors of their houses, and of their hearts, 
against all fanatics, for all are evil — all are mad! 
Whether beginning by advocating the claims, which 
all good men allow, of temperance, they proceed 
from step to step, till they reach the mad insanity 
of stigmatising the Redeemer — like the Pharisees 
of old, as a wine-bibber and a glutton. Whether 
14* 



162 

starting with a society for the suppression of prosti- 
tution, they end by advocating promiscuous inter- 
course and unlimited concubinage! — or whether, 
pretending a zeal for the unhappy negroes, they 
tread the path that must inevitably lead to discord, 
and to civil war, with all its kindred horrors of 
rape, and sack and slaughter. And let them hear 
this too, those who deem it unconstitutional and un- 
just to crush this reptile in the egg — let them hear 
this! The man who set on foot the madness of 
Matthias, and the man who is now whetting my- 
riads of swords for civil massacre, from one end to 
the other of these powerful and peaceful United 
States, IS ONE and the same! Tappan the founder 
of the Magdalen Societies of 1832 — the causer of 
McDowalPs infamous publications — the original 
head of that sect whence sprung the followers of 
Matthias; Tappan the head of the abolition societies 
of 1835! — whither his teachings led in the first in- 
stance, we have seen; — whither his teachings now 
shall lead futurity alone can prove, although it needs 
no prophet's eye to pierce the secret. 

<^ 0! if that man be virtuous — if he have a heart 
— if he have human feeling — let him pause. He 
has seen, he tnust know the results of that mad 
zeal, which he then set on foot, although we well 
believe, he dreamed not of its terrible effects. He 
has witnessed the guilt of those wretched victims — 
and his own heart, his own conscience — if he have 
a heart, or conscience — must tell him that he is in 
truth the origin of all this ruin. And if it be so — 
if the religious zeal to which he then, piously we 
will believe and for good purposes, gave its first 
stimulus, has produced results the most opposite to 
his intentions; — if it has disappointed his wishes, 
while it has confirmed the opinions all wise men 



163 

even then entertained of it, — will he not pause, and 
consider — that this cry of abolition, to which he 
has now piously and for good purposes, given its 
first stimulus, may in like manner produce results 
the most opposite to his intentions; — may in like 
manner disappoint his wishes, and confirm the pre- 
sent predictions of all, who are not, like him, blind- 
ed by overweening confidence in their own self- 
idolizing sanctity." 

It may be doubted, notwithstanding Mr. Tap- 
pan's fanaticism, whether his piety would have 
pressed him into so conspicuous a station among 
the abolitionists, had not another passion pleaded in 
its favour. Weak men are generally vain. Inca- 
pable of great or useful ambition; they cherish a 
pruriency for praise, or an anxiety to escape from 
their natural insignificance, by notoriety of any 
kind. Even abuse is grateful to them, for it is an 
acknowledgment of their importance; the praise 
and censure incurred by Mr. Tappan are acceptable 
incense to him, and are purchased cheaply by his 
large contributions to the abolitionists. He finds 
himself rendered, by his connection with them, " a 
marvellous proper man," and clings with delight to 
a cause which has ministered so successfully to the 
little vanity of a feeble and contracted mind. 

Our attention is next directed to George Thompson, 
occasionally dignified with the title of the Reverend 
George Thompson, and otherwise simply designat- 
ed as George Thompson, Esquire, from England. 
Who, it will be asked, is this foreigner, and what 
does he here? The answer will flush every Ameri- 
can cheek with shame and indignation. — 

The first knowledge we have of Thompson, is as 
lecturer in England on Slavery in this country. 
How he acquired any knowledge of the subject, or 
how he was interested in it, we are left to conjee- 



164 

ture. But we see by the Manchester Times, of 
August 2, 1834, that Thompson, at a great meeting 
in that city asserted that a slave-holder in this coun- 
try, possessing five hundred slaves, in addition to 
his own vote, threw into the ballot box three hun- 
dred more to represent three fifths of his property. 
His geography appears to have been equal to his 
other accomplishments, as he gravely informed that 
intelligent audience, that the United States "consist- 
ed of twenty-four states exclusive of three small 
Districts called Columbia," and detailed the manner 
in which ** slaves were smuggled up the rivers of 
that territory for the purpose of supplying the mar- 
kets!" But plain misrepresentation constitutes but 
a slight portion of his claims to our regard. The 
burthen of his song in England was abuse of this 
country.* Among other matters he stated, upon 



* The following is a copy of a letter, from a highly re- 
spectable gentleman in Manchester, England, and was origi- 
nally published in the New York Courier and Enquirer. 

^''Manchester July 29, 1834. 

Dear Sir: — My object in writing at the present time is to 
inform you that a vile Fanatic by the name of Thompson, is 
about to visit the United States, under the patrenage of (as 
I am informed) Mr. Arthur Tappan, and a few men of that 
clique. 

Mr. Thompson gave a lecture last evening upon the sub- 
ject of slavery in America, during which he took occasion to 
SLANDER the country MOST VILELY, and told many false- 
hoods too gross to he repeated. Mr. B. W. Richards, (the late 
respected Mayor of Philadelphia,) was present, and told me 
this day that he was upon the point of getting up and telling 
him his statements were fahe^ but was only restrained from 
so doing by being a stranger in a strange land. My only 
object in writing you is to inform you and the intelligent 
readers of your paper, that Mr. Thompson embarks in the 
ship United States, (the packet of the 8th August) and put 
them on their guard against his proceedings. 1 am as much 



165 

one occasion, that female slaves were publicly sold by 
weight in this country; and scrupled not to make 
the institutions of the United States the subject of 
the most vehement abuse. So much for his public 
character. It may now be well to inquire into the 
private standing of this favourite and foreign malig- 
ner of our people and institutions. The individual 
who has the presumption to land upon our shores, 
and go from city to city to denounce our people 
and laws, should be immaculate himself — elevated so 
far above ordinary humanity, as to be worthy to re- 
buke even the most exalted of his fellow beings. 
What are the facts? From rumours afloat, in rela- 
tion to his former character, it was considered ne- 
cessary to make some inquiries in his native coun- 
try. The following paragraph, extracted from a 
respectable daily journal of Philadelphia, will ex- 
hibit the result of this investigation. 

"Serious charge. — The Editor of the New 
York Commercial Advertiser, says that he is au- 
thorized to state that the proofs of Mr. George 
Thompson's embezzlement of moneys from Messrs. 
Marshal & Dale, of London, for which he was dis- 
missed from their employ, and but for their forbear- 
ance would have been sent on a mission to Botany 
Bay, as also the proofs of his expulsion from the 
literary and scientific institutions, &c., have arrived, 
and may be seen in the hands of James Jarret, Esq. 
They are in the shape of affidavits, taken before 
Thomas Aspinwall, Esq. U. S. consul for the city 
of London." 

From this it appears, that the man who has arro- 



opposed to slavery as Mr. Thompson or any other person can 
be, yet I am not willing that he or any other foreigner should 
interfere in our concerns at all. Very respectfully, Your 
obedient servant." 



166 



gantly presumed to stand upon our own soil and 
malign the people and institutions of our country, is 
a vagabond, an outcast, a felon, one who owes his 
exemption from the most infamous penalty of the 
^nghsh laws, not to his innocence, but to the for- 
bearance of those from whom he embezzled money* 
How, It Will be asked, did Thompson assume his 
present prominent position in relation to the aboli- 
tion movement? When Garrison was in Endand 
an arrangement was made with individuals in that 
country, to obtain for their designs English co-ope- 
ration. It will be seen hereafter, that Endish 
lunds and English influence are at work to disturb 
and distract this country. Thompson was considered 
a suitable agent for such a design. Fluent, decla- 
matory, impudent, and unscrupulous, he was pecu- 
liarly qualified for the task of fomenting discord 
among our citizens, and insurrection among the 
slaves He was, therefore, chosen as agent by a 
iiritish society, and sent over for the express and ex- 
clusive purpose of agitating this country on the sub- 
ject oi slavery. 

On liis arrival he was received with open arms, 
and caressed and honoured by Tappan, Garrison 
Cox, and the.r brethren. He immediately com- 
menced operations; and has already traversed a 
arge portion of the North, preaching opposition 
to the existmg institutions of our country 

huch are the singular facts connected with the 
public mission of tliis man. A wretch who has 
been guilty of an infamous offence, and is prepared 
tor any act, is selected, appointed, and paid by a 
British society-for what? To visit our country 
ma capacity worse than that of the spy, to foment 
discord among our people, array brother against 
brother, and father against son; to excite treasonable 
opposition to our government; to preach hatred and 



167 

hostility against our sacred Union; to excite our 
slave population to rise and butcher their masters; 
to render the South a desert, and the country at 
large the scene of fraternal war, weakness, suffering 
and crime. Such is his errand hither. Can the 
memory of the reader furnish him with an instance 
of more flagrant violation of the rights of an inde- 
pendent nation — of more open, gross, and insulting 
outrage on national intelligence, spirit, and honor? 
England has wronged us heretofore — but it was as 
an open foe; and as an open and honourable foe was 
she met and chastised. But the amount of former 
wrongs — even those which have reddened land and 
sea with the blood of our people — is trifling com- 
pared with the injuries contemplated in this inter- 
ference. Mr. Buckingham, a member of the Eng- 
lish parliament, lately asserted at a public meeting — 
" The greater proportion of the people of England 
DEMAND not merely emancipation, but the im- 
mediate emancipation of the slaves, in whatever 
qtiarier of the world they may he foiind.^' Mr. 
Thompson is the bearer of these DEMANDS! 
Daniel O'Connell, shortly before the passage of the 
English act of abolition, declared in public: "The 
West Indies will be obliged to grant emancipation, 
and then we will turn to America, and RE- 
QUIRE emancipation.'^ It is now REQUIRED 
by Mr. Thompson, the British agent! The cala- 
mities which may ensue from these movements are 
anticipated with pleasure, rather than regret. The 
insurrection of our slaves, and the agony and horror 
which must ensue — the distraction of the American 
people, the dissolution of the American Union, the 
degradation of the American name — these are the 
aim and end of British philanthropy. In what spirit 
has this hostile and contemptuous interference been 



J68 

received? How would a similar wrong have been 
received by England? Should w*e send emissaries 
into hapless Ireland to excite rebellion and war, 
how would they be treated? They would be con- 
signed to the keeping of the gibbet. Had a foreign 
power sent an agent into this country, in the early 
days of the republic, to foment insurrection and dis- 
cord, how would our fathers have received him? 
They would have regarded him as too offensive for 
indifference, yet too contemptible for serious resent- 
ment, and would have conferred upon him the ho- 
nours of " a balmage of humble tar, and a hierogly- 
phic of feathers." How have their descendants 
received Thompson? They have followed him by 
thousands; listened, in silence, while the pensioned 
felon of a foreign people maligned all that is illus- 
trious in our annals, cast reproach and shame upon 
our country and her institutions, and called upon our 
people to rise and trample upon the rights of their 
brethren, the legacy of our common parentage, the 
charter of our common country. To what must we 
ascribe this un worth 3" conduct upon the part of a 
portion of our people? To a respect for the foreign 
agent — to a traitor spirit which delights in the dis- 
grace of our own land — or to that weakness which, 
with undistinguishing credulity, receives and reve- 
rences all that comes from those who wear " the 
livery of heaven," no matter for what purpose assum- 
ed, and use the cant and slang of hypocrisy, however 
destitute of all real claims to confidence or respect? 
We will not enter further into an account of the 
leaders of the abolition conspiracy. It is unneces- 
sary to describe the Reverend Dr. Beman of Troy, 
one of the most noisy and violent of the canting 
supporters of abolition, who first sold out his 
slaves, and then denounced those "who sell the 



169 

image of Jesus."* It is equally unnecessary to 
refer particularly to the Rev. Dr. Cox, who pro- 

* The following is an extract from one of the abolition 
speeches of Dr. Beman. 

"But, I have heard of another remedy : ' Just leave that 
question to the slave states. What have we of the North to 
do with slavery"?' But, here is ground for caution. Have 
not we at the North our share in the government of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia 1 Do we not in fact govern it. Yet that 
district is the central mart of the traffic in human flesh. Yes, 
sir, we at the North do govern slave shambles. Our hands 
are not quite so deem as we have supposed. 

" My Southern brethren never heard me slander them. 1 
am candid oh this subject. Often do we hear it said, ' What 
do Northern people know about slavery V Sir, lam not a 
stranger to slavery. I have resided eleven years at the South, 
and three or four winters into the bargain; and I know some- 
thing about it. It is an immense evil. I can go, chapter 
and verse, with the able document that has just been read. 
It is even so — the very picture of slavery. Are our Southern 
brethren infallible ? They are very kind-hearted brethren: 
yet some of them SELL THE IMAGE OF JESUS IN 
THEIR SLAVES ! Are they competent judges in the easel 
The wise man says, ' A gift blindeth the eyes.' THEY 
JUDGE WITH THE PRICE OF HUMAN FLESH IN 
THEIR HANDS!" .,^.., 

The following is a copy of a Bill of sale executed by this 
same Reverend and consistent champion of abolition. 

State of Georgia, ~) 

Hancock county. 3 Know all men by these presents, that 
I, Nathan S. S. Beman, of the county and State aforesaid, 
have this day bargained and sold to Jacob Wilcox of Savan- 
nah, of the said state, THREE NEGRO SLAVES, viz. 
Cloe, a negro woman, about thirty-four years of age, her son 
George, four years of age, and her daughter Cuyline, an in- 
fant, for and in consideration of the sum of SEVEN HUN- 
DRED DOLLARS, to me in hand paid, the receipt and 
payment of which sum in full are hereby acknowledged : and 
I, the said Nathan S. S. Beman, do agree to warrant and de- 
fend the right of the aforesaid negroes to him, the said Jacob 
Wilcox, his heirs and assigns, forever, against all claims 
whatever. 
15 



170 

nounced Jesus Christ a coloured man; or to Mr, 
Thorne who said — " The slave States are Sodoms 
and almost every village family a brothel.^^ Or to 
the Reverend Mr. May, who preaches that the Con- 
stitution ought to be violated if counter to what he 
considers the will of Heaven ; or to scores of others, 
whose violence and extravagance have excited, in 
every reasonable citizen, sentiments of alarm and 
disgust. 

The abolition party comprises an unusual num- 
ber of fervent champions — men accustomed to 
speaking and writing, and possessed of influence 
and resources to sustain their views. They are 
ardent, active, and united. Many are actuated by 
honest fanaticism; others are impelled by a sinister 
ambition, by hatred of the South, or by a natural 
proneness, '' to make trouble.'^ They are perse- 
vering, courageous where no physical danger exists, 
and determined, as will be seen hereafter, to urge 
their scheme to the greatest lengths. Opposition 
has naturally increased their zeal, until in the 
warmth of their sympathy for the negroes, they 
have, in many cases, actually imbibed a prejudice 
against their own colour. It must not be supposed 
that their support of their Quixotical plan of eman- 
cipation is a proof of benevolence or love of free- 
dom. A knowledge of the character of the aboli- 
tionists will dissipate any such opinion. They have 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affix- 
ed my seal, this 11th day of April, 1822. 

NATHAN S. S. BEMAN. [l. s.] 

Signed, sealed and delivered "^ 

in presence of I 

Leavitt Thaxter, f 

Wm. Greene Macon, 1. I. C.J 

Registered the 15th June, 1822. 

Phil. L. Simms, Clerk Sup'r. Court. 



171 

taken up the cause from various motives, and now 
maintain it from a love of contest and of notoriety, 
and from that hair-brained heat and invincible ob- 
stinacy that characterize fanatical warfare. Marat, 
Robespierre, and the monsters of the French reign 
of terror, were among the first and most devoted 
champions of abolition; but it may be doubted 
whether they cherished a real love of liberty or of 
man. Enthusiasts are as often evil as good; and 
when a cause like abolition is maintained in the 
face of an affrighted and afflicted country, and 
against the remonstrances and prayers of the best 
men in the land, the fire that warms the hearts of 
its frantic, angry, and head-strong champions, is sel- 
dom caught from the altars of the Most High. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Policy of Aholitionists — Jigitation in the North 
— in the South — ivith the slave-holders— with 
Slaves — Fanaticism — Female Influence — Or- 
ganization — Agents — Publications — Political 
Influence — Revolution — Disunion — Insurrec- 
tion. 

The great engine by which the abolitionists ex- 
pect to effect their designs, is agitation — not reason 
— not argument — not candid appeals to the patriot- 
ism and common sense of our people — but agitation 
of popular prejudices and passions. Their first effort 
is to raise a party in the North. They admit, for 
they cannot deny, that the North can, under the 
present constitution, have no control over the insti- 
tutions of the South. Why then agitate it? Why 
seek to excite in the North feelings of aversion and 
hostility against the South? No good motive can 
prompt a course so indirect and unnecessary. This 
policy is pursued for the purpose of perverting the 
sentiments and feelings of the North, souring its 
affection for the South, cooling its attachment to the 
Union, and urging it into a course designed to force 
the South into emancipation. The North also offers 
a field peculiarly favourable to their designs. Here 
they do not dread the penalty of the violated law. 
Here they do not apprehend the fiery indignation 
of a people whose lives are endangered by their 
reckless agitation. Here, too, they find a popula- 
tion generally ignorant of the nature and necessity 



173 

of negro slavery at the South, and prepared, by pre- 
vious prejudices, to listen to the dangerous counsels 
of those who oppose it. But, perhaps, a still greater 
inducement for making the North the present scene 
of their labours is, that it presents a secure position 
from which to operate on the South. Here they 
may safely plant the lever by which they hope to 
overthrow the institutions of the slave-holding states. 
Here they may mix and prepare their poisons; may 
arrange their magazine of incendiary weapons; and 
send forth their publications through the South, on 
their errand of insurrection and death. They are 
heroic men, — but not sufficiently heroic to perpe- 
trate their offences in person. They are philan- 
thropic, — but dare not visit the slaves and minister 
to their alleged wants upon the spot They are 
determined to " war until death with the tyrants 
of the South,'^ — but it is no part of their philosophy 
to meet their foe in the face of day; they war with 
poison, or in the dark. They are vastly pious, they 
quote scripture with peculiar unction, and repeat 
incessantly the divine command — " go unto all na- 
tions.'^ But they take the liberty of modifying the 
command, and read it, " send unto all nations." 

The apostles did " GO," even with the prospect 
of certain death before them: the abolitionists are 
so much more holy than the apostles, that they can- 
not sanction what they did not scruple to approve 
and sustain — domestic slavery — but, with all their 
marvellous sanctity and heroic courage, for some 
reason hitherto unexplained, they have not yet ven- 
tured to '' GO." 

In attempting to operate on the South, they tell 
us that their object is to waken the conscience of the 
slave-holder. How they can expect, by endanger- 
ing the life of the slave-holder, and the security of 
his family, by exciting his indignation and fears, 
15* 



174 

and irritating him to madness, to gain his confidence 
and sway his convictions, it is impossible for us to 
imagine. That they have not succeeded thus far, 
will be admitted. Had they really desired or de- 
signed to operate favourably on the feelings or opin- 
ions of the slave-holder, would they not, after so 
complete a failure, have abandoned or changed their 
plan? 

Their operations are prosecuted through the me- 
dium of the post-office. They thus avoid expense, 
and make the nation pay for the transportation of 
their incendiary pamphlets. The arteries of the 
body politic are thus made to disseminate those 
poisons which are designed to destroy it. The 
propriety of such a course has never been doubted 
by the abolitionists — honesty being a virtue alto- 
gether beneath the consideration of such exalted 
philanthropists. The circulation of such publica- 
tions throughout many of the states of the South is 
a capital offence. They, conscientious men, do not 
violate the laws in person; but throw the offence 
upon the unconscious carrier of the mail. This 
might disturb the ethics of some people, but the 
violation of law is, with the fanatics, a praiseworthy 
act, where the motives of the offender are so pure 
and lofty. The publications are generally directed 
'Ho the clergyman" of the post-office town, or to 
the post-master. The number of individuals to 
whom it is directed by name is very limited. 

The real object of transmitting these publications 
to the South is, that they may reach the slave. No 
one who has read their publications, particularly 
those designed for the South, can for a moment sup- 
pose that they are intended or expected to operate 
on intelligent or educated men. They are designed 
for the ignorant slaves. The box of anti-slavery 
publications intercepted on its way to the South, 



175 

and destroyed at Philadelphia, contained a large 
number of handkerchiefs, with inflammatory de- 
vices. Were these intended for the master? It 
contained also books, with representations of slaves 
in chains, suffering under the lash. These, also, we 
are to believe, were designed for the intelligent 
planters of the South. The fact that they were^not 
directed to the slaves, is immaterial. They could 
not have been so directed, with a possibility of 
reaching their destination. They were sent in the 
only manner in which they could reach the slave. 
The mails were swelled with them — the whole 
South was flooded with them. They were scat- 
tered broad-cast, and overspread the South as a 
pestilence. How is it possible that the slave could 
escape them? It was not intended that he should. 
They were written for him, printed for him — were 
suited only to his capacity, were forwarded for his 
use, and were intended, as will be seen hereafter, to 
excite him to a forcible assertion of his freedom. 

In referring to the means used by the abolitionists 
to effect their design of popular agitation, we must 
not omit their constant recourse to religious cant. 
They appeal, for the most part, to fanatical weak- 
ness. They do not presume to urge abolition as 
patriots, philosophers, or political economists: they 
press it almost exclusively on religious grounds, in 
religious phraseology, and to religious men. Their 
policy, in this particular, manifests a deep insight 
into human nature, particularly in this country, and 
is the great cause of their past success. 

The following passages, hastily extracted from 
an abolition paper lying before us, exhibit the 
manner in which their cause is urged. 

" 1st. Resolved, (at one of the abolition meet- 
ings,) That slave-holding being totally at variance 
with Christianity, its toleration in Christian churches 



176 

is in effect saying, that righteousness hath fellow- 
ship with unrighteousness — that light hath com- 
munion with darkness — that Christ hath concord 
with Belial. 

2d. Resolved, that the toleration of slave-holding 
in the church must prove fatal to vital piety. 

3d. Resolved, That slave-holding is incompatible 
with church fellowship." 

'< For success in this sacred enterprize, we cease 
from man, and look to God alone. — In him is ever- 
lasting strength — with him the residue of the Spirit 
and plenteous redemption. His word has gone out 
of his mouth: ' For the oppression of the poor, and 
for the sighing of the needy, now will I rise, saith 
the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that 
puffeth at him.' His wisdom is our guide, his 
power our defence, his truth our weapon, his Spirit 
our comforter, his promise the anchor of our souls, 
his approval our exceeding great reward, and his 
blessing upon our past labors, a sure presage of the 
glory to be revealed in the triumphs of a redemp- 
tion which already draweth nigh. Solemnly con- 
secrated to the cause of emancipation, immediate 
TOTAL AND UNIVERSAL, wc subscribe our names to 
this Declaration." — Ohio Convention. 

Extract from the Speech of the Rev. Mr. Jiikin. 

"The responsibilities of ministers were indeed 
momentous — momentous as two and a half millions 
of human beings were valuable — momentous as 
heaven was important, and hell awful — momentous 
as the worth of the soul. Almost every thing in 
relation to this cause depended upon the ministers 
of Christ. It was so in England; little was done 
there until ministers were enlisted in the work. 
While Clarkson was sending out his thrilling ap- 
peals, and Wilberforce was lifting up his solitary 



177 

note of warning in Parliament, the ministers of the 
gospel were holding back. It was < a delicate sub- 
ject,' had * political bearings,' &c. — and nothing 
was done, until God in his providence, compelled 
his ministers to take up the subject. Then the work 
went on at such a rate, that it took four men to 
carry the petitions which came in from all parts of 
the kingdom. Then Parliament began to act. And 
he despaired of ever seeing the great work accom- 
plished in our own country, until the ministers of 
the gospel came up to it like men, with united ef- 
fort and unflinching nerve." — Emancipator. 

" Yes, it is written in the decrees of high heaven, 
that the injured slave shall finally be for ever free. 
And the church must take the lead in this great 
work. It has taken the lead in my own country. 
If legislatures do not look after it, this will not ex- 
cuse the church, for deliverance must come out of 
Zion." — Speech of Rev. Air. Cox, English Moli- 
tion Emissary. 

^' The cry of the oppressed — of the millions who 
have perished among us as the brute perisheth, shut 
out from the glad tidings of salvation, has gone 
there before us, to Him who as a father pitieth all 
his children. Their blood is upon us as a nation; 
woe unto us, if we repent not, as a nation, in dust 
and ashes. Woe unto us if we say in our hearts, 
^The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of 
Jacob regard it. He that planted the ear, shall he 
not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not 
see?' " — Anti-Slavery Reporter. 

The time is hastening on when slavery, in all 
its forms, must come to an end; for the mouth of 
the Lord has spoken it." — Observer. 

" Prayer and action go together. — A friend 
In Utica, writes us as follows: 

" ' Our friends in this region are becoming more 



178 



prayerful and earnest in behalf of the oppressed 
colored man. Our friends Boardman, Pettibone, 
(of Evan's Mills, Jefferson co.) and Waters, at the 
monthly concert of Monday evening, took hold, by 
prayer and addresses, with a christian and strong 
hand, of the glorious cause of emancipation." — 
Emancipator. 

^^0, Heaven! 0, thou Great Eternal, is this jus- 
tice! is this equity!!— Equal rights! Save, thou 
Great Eternal, save our country from the practice 
of such equal rx^i^W —Human Rights. 

« We appeal to you as Christians, as servants of 
the Most High God, as bearing his image, as repre- 
sentatives of his character, as imitators of all his 
imitable perfections. 

" Dear brethren, will you consent to the continu- 
ance of this iniquitous and impolitic system? Will 
you allow to continue a bondage, more terrible in 
Its moral and physical effects than the slavery of 
Egypt, the cry of which ascended unto heaven, and 
brought down in terrible abundance the curses of 
Omnipotence! Will you still support a system, 
(which you do, so long as you do not remonstrate 
against it) which, trampling the badge of Christian 
discipleship under its unhallowed feet, acts in dar- 

'.".frJ'''^^^''''' ""^ ^^^ S^^^* P^^c^Pt of its founder, 
Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto 
you, do ye even so to them;' can you with any con- 
sistency ask a blessing for the diffusion of Christian 
knowledge whilst your own hands are tainted with 
the plague-spots of slavery, and whilst the accusing- 
voice of our whole church, whispers in their ears— 

' Cast out the beam out of thine own eye &c ' " 

Address of the Episcopal Church of Ohio. ' 

In this, as in every thing else, the abolitionists do 
not hesitate to go to the greatest extremes. While 
they denounce against slavery, and against the land 



179 



on Its account, the most direful judgments; while 
they consign the slave-holder and all who counte- 
nance him to certain damnation; while they call 
upon every Christian, to come forth and aid in the 
prostration of Slavery-they do not shrink from 
the practical application of their principles, and re- 
luse all Christian communion with those who sanc- 
tion what God has sanctioned— what the laws have 
sanctioned— what good men in all ages have not 
hesitated to sanction— domestic slavery. This bold 
and daring step by which every man is subjected to 
religious proscription, who is not willing to become 
virtually a traitor, and join in conspiring against his 
country and his race, while it excites the indigna- 
tion of the just, appals the weak, and has, when 
joined with their cant, hypocrisy and fanaticism, 
added greatly to the religious power previously en- 
listed beneath their banner. This success encourages 
them to a more ostentatious exhibition of fanatical 
fervor. Their columns are almost nasal with cant; 
and It might be supposed, from the aspect of their 
publications, that the days of Cromwell were re- 
vived, and that his fanatical followers, heated into 
tenfold fury, were abroad in the land. 

It is not however merely to religious feelings that 
they appeal. They publish statements of the con- 
dition of the slaves in the South, made up, either of 
utter falsehoods, or of artful exaggerations, and calcu- 
Med to excite the deepest sympathy in their behalf. 
Particular narratives, embodying fictitious cases of 
unnatural oppression, are extensively circulated; and 
poetical and pictorial representations are added to 
complete the sinister appeal. It is unnecessary to 
state that in all this the boldest falsehood is freely 
pressed into service. Representations of an equally 
moving character, and of equal truth, might be 
made up of the cases of parental cruelty, ^r the 



180 

barbarity of masters to apprentices, in the North- 
ern, or any other section of our, or any other coun- 
try. 

The abolitionists, as another auxiliary in the at- 
tainment of their ends, have succeeded in enlisting 
female societies in their support. They sew for the 
cause; collect money for it; and render it all the 
aid which extraordinary zeal, combined with activi- 
ty and leisure, can yield. When the most pro- 
found intellects in our country regard this exciting 
and momentous subject with awe, we cannot, with- 
out regret, see ladies rushing boldly into it. They 
forget that it is a political subject of the most im- 
portant character: and, easily led away by the re- 
ligious appeals of the abolitionists and the gentle 
and generous, but in this case misguided, promptings 
of their own nature, they unreflectingly lend their 
aid to designs, the tendency and consequence of 
which they are incapable of understanding. Poli- 
tics is not the sphere in which the sex is either use- 
ful or honored; and their interference with subjects 
of this character, if sufficiently important to have 
any influence, must have an evil one. It is pecu- 
liarly to be regretted, that the false eloquence of the 
abolition preachers could ever have attained such in- 
fluence over them, as to render them forgetful of the 
situation of their fair and gentle sisters of the South. 
Have they studied the history of St. Domingo; and 
are they prepared to let loose upon the refined and 
innocent ladies of the South, the savage negro, inca- 
pable of restraint, and wild with ungovernable pas- 
sions? Are they aware of the present apprehen- 
sions of the females of the slave-holding states; 
and are they willing to add another to the fears that 
now haunt their pillows? It is impossible that fana- 
ticism can so far have perverted their sympathies, 
or steeled the holier charities of their nature. 



181 

The possibility of insurrection and the negroes' 
saturnalia of blood and lust, should appal every 
female bosom, and deter them from a scheme of be- 
nevolence so dubious in its character, and so fearful 
in its consequences.* 

But the eager fanatics have even sought to draw 
children into their ranks. For this purpose, they 
have encouraged the formation of children's Aboli- 
tion Societies. They have also published abolition 
magazines and periodicals for children, filled with 



* We marvel that the abstractions of the abolitionists con- 
cerning the rights of man, have never suggested to their 
female disciples, the propriety of asserting the rights of wo- 
men. The same abstract reasoning will sustain both. "All 
men are created free and equail ;" and why not, pray, all 
women ■? Why are they debarred the right of voting, the 
right of legislating, the right of holding office? Why are 
they made the dependants and slaves of Ihe " lords of crea- 
tion" — their civil existence, and even their name being for- 
feited by matrimony 1 Is this just dealing, in a free country ? 
These positions are by no means novel. They have been 
seriously urged, as will be seen by the following extract 
from the Free Enquirer: "Are not all women endowed 
with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness ? Are not governments (both 
matrimonial and legal) 'instituted among men to secure these 
rights V Do not marriages, as well as governments, ' derive 
their just power from the consent' of the contracting parties 1 
' Whenever any marriage (be it of a king to his subjects, or 
a husband to his wife) ' becomes destructive of these ends,' 
is it not right that it should be dissolved V These views 
have not been left to theory. The French revolutionists, 
from whom the fanatics derive their notions of abolition, 
directly undertook to assert the rights of women. The 
French legislature took up this subject in 1789. " Succeed- 
ing Assemblies," says Burke in his Regicide Peace, " went 
the full length of the principle, and gave a license to divorce 
at the mere pleasure of either party^ and at one month's 
notice." The reason alleged was " that women had beea 
too long under the tyranny of parents and husbands." To 
such lengths will these abstractionists carry their insane zeal. 
16 



182 

pictures, calculated to operate on the uninformed 
and youthful mind. Handkerchiefs, with matter of 
the same character, are printed and distributed. A 
double object is thus attained — whilst these books 
and handkerchiefs are adapted to their ostensible 
purpose, they are found equally suited to excite the 
ignorant slave. We will not now pause to com- 
ment on that party-spirit, which scruples not to en- 
list, in opposition to the established institutions of 
the country, the aid of women and children. Those 
who seek thus to carry a polical measure, can have 
but little confidence in their claims to the support 
of prudent and reasoning men. 

The organization of the party is effective. It con- 
sists of the general society, and those which have 
been subsequently formed for the advancement of the 
cause. The latter are divided into state and county 
societies. They have already held several conven- 
tions. In these conventions blacks and whites are 
mingled indiscriminately. 

The more direct means, by which the abolitionists 
operate on the popular mind, are their emissaries and 
agents, and their publications and pictures. Their 
agents are generally clergymen. They traverse the 
North, preaching sermons in support of abolition; 
and when they can muster courage, enter the South 
and skulk among the slaves, for the alleged pur- 
pose of preaching the Gospel, but in reality to excite 
discontent and opposition. The reader is aware, 
that several of these emissaries have been detected 
in the South; and that justice has been meted out to 
them according to their deserts. One was recently 
detected in the vicinity of Nashville, scattering in- 
surrectionary prints and devices, under the pretence 
of distributing the cottage bible. A number of these 
agents are engaged in travelling through the South, 
and writing letters, filled with the most revolting 



183 

falsehoods in relation to the condition and treatment 
of the slaves. 

The most powerful instrument of mischief in the 
hands of the abolitionists is the press. A number 
of books, magazines, tracts, and newspapers are pub- 
lished and distributed gratuitously through all sec- 
tions of the Union. These publications are made 
up with skill and effect; and embody every thing in 
the shape of false statements, hollow declamation, 
and religious cant, which, it is supposed, can mis- 
lead or excite the unthinking. 

In the accomplishment of their aims, the abolition- 
ists do not scruple to resort to every measure calcu- 
lated to influence the result. They may be already 
regarded as a political party. It is true, that they 
have not, thus far, nominated candidates, and for- 
mally entered the political arena. But they have, 
in those communities, where their strength warrants 
it, procured lists of those opposed to them, and op- 
pose and proscribe them in political life, whenever 
an opportunity is afforded. Their complete union, 
and the secrecy of their operations, render them 
even now important; and should their future pro- 
gress in the North equal that of the last two years, 
they will be enabled to raise their banner before the 
world. In the attitude of political partizans they 
cannot, with their zeal, resources, ability, and 
successful recourse to electioneering and religious 
cant and slang — fail to attain a dangerous influence 
and power. 

We have before said, that the abolitionists regard 
nothing as sacred which intervenes between them 
and their object. If they can pervert the present 
government into an instrument of agitation, and 
succeed in their designs upon the South, they will, 
of course, be satisfied. But should they fail in tliis, 



184 

should they find the constitution of the Union an 
^gis for the South, which their efforts are inade- 
quate to shatter — they will not pause nor hesitate 
to change it. They have, indeed, in some of their do- 
cuments avowed their disapproval of the provisions 
of the prcvsent constitution, and their determination to 
advocate such a change as will leave the South open 
to national legislation on the question of slavery. 
This change has been mostly advocated as a peace- 
ful measure. Should the proposed reform however 
fail, they are prepared to make open war upon the 
constitution, and preach revolution. They have al- 
ready made several direct advances to this position; 
not insidiously and with fear, but openly and before 
all the world. They preach that no law or consti- 
tution can be binding which is opposed to the will 
of heaven; and as they denounce slavery as a sin, 
the inference is plain, that our constitution, which 
sanctions it, has no binding force. 

It is scarce credible that, in this happy country, 
men can be found willing to avow their treasonable 
hostility to our sacred government; yet such is the 
fact, as will be seen by the following extracts: 

" Suppose the constitution did sanction slavery? 
What then? While there is a God in heaven, can 
WE BE BOUND by any compacts of our own, or 
ANY ENACTMENTS of our fellow worms, to 
sin against him?" — Speech of the Rev. Mr. May, 
one of the leadins^ champions of abolition. 

The following passages are from the " Declaration 
of the Anti-Slavery Convention;" and may be re- 
garded as the solemn and official expression of the 
fixed principles of the party. 

" The guilt of this nation is unequalled by any 
other on the face of the earth. 

" Every American citizen who retains a human 



185 

being in involuntary bondage, is (according to scrip- 
ture) a man stealer.^ 

^^All those laws ivhich are now in force, ad- 
mitting the right of slavery, are, before God, 
NULL AND VOID." 

This, it must be admitted, is distinct and intelli- 
gible enough. 

If the South could be given up to the slaves, and 
the Union still preserved, the abolitionists would 
probably be content. But we have every evidence 
of their determination, that the Union, with its pre- 
sent institutions, shall not continue. Their whole 
policy betrays this sentiment. Their violation of the 
rights of the South; their efforts to irritate the peo- 
ple of the slave-holding states into acts of hostility 
against the Union; their anxiety to agitate the dis- 
tracting subject of slavery in the United States 
Districts, and their thousand diiferent schemes of 
incendiarism and agitation, evidence, — not an in- 
difference to the Union — but a fixed and stern de- 
termination to overthrow it. 

We have not been left to infer the existence of 
this disposition from their course; they have directly 
avowed it. The Human Rights, a paper published 
by the A. S. Society, says — 

^^Abolitionists are probably as fond of the Union 
as slave-holders ; but not of a union to oppress 
THE POOR. If this Union is severed, slavery will 
he to blame for it.'' 

This declaration is only one of innumerable ex- 
pressions of a like character. It cannot be doubted 
that the abolitionistSj instead of feeling disposed to 



* If there be any such declaration in Scripture, in relatioa 
to "American citizens," or any other citizens, we have been 
unable to discover it. We have already show^n that the 
scripture sanction of slavery is ample and distinct, 
16* 



186 

abandon their schemes, because dangerous to the 
Union, are opposed to the Union from prejudice and 
feeling, and determined, if possible, to overthrow it, 
as the great obstacle in the way of accomplishing 
their own mad designs. 

The abolitionists have disclaimed a desire to ex- 
cite insurrection among the slaves. If a man should 
thrust a lighted torch into a powder magazine, he 
would find it difficult to convince the world that he 
did not design to produce an explosion. The aboli- 
tionists studiously pursue a course which they know 
must have a tendency to excite insurrection; a course 
for which we can assign no other rational object — 
and yet assure us that it is innocent. Their Southern 
emissaries, their inflammatory papers, and their still 
more inflammatory devices, are all intended for the 
slave-holder ! Such assertions exhibit a degree of 
bold presumption, of brassy assurance, for which it 
would be difficult to find a parallel. While they 
pronounce the restraints of the law upon the slave 
" null and void^^ while they own that their love 
of union does not extend to the present union, which 
" oppresses the poor" — while their professed prin- 
ciples and acknowledged practice all join to prove 
that servile insurrection, instead of being inconsis- 
tent with their sentiments or feelings, is a part of 
their policy — while all this stands manifest before 
us, we canot but marvel at the boldness which dares 
to deny their desire to see the slaves rise upon their 
masters, and assert their freedom at the point of the 
sword. Let the following extracts from their official 
publications speak for them on this subject: 

'' How long can the smiles of Heaven rest on a 
people who boldly and shamelessly avow their de- 
termination at all hazards to uphold the most foul 
and crushing system of tyranny that ever disgraced 
this tyrant-trodden world? But hush! we must not 



]87 

speak of tyranny, lest the word should penetrate the 
sealed ear of the bondman! Mark the reason — aye, 
MARK THE REASON. It is not because your charge 
is FALSE — but because your words may arouse the 
victim. Heavens! is there in free America a class 
so basely, cruelly trampled in the mire, that their 
ears must never be saluted with a word of sympathy, 
that their rights must never be called in remem- 
brance, lest they should be goaded to uncontrollable 
and murderous vengeance? IF SO, WE SAY, BET- 
TER MEET THEIR VENGEANCE THAN 
GOD'S." 

"A very important ' truth' it is indeed, that the 
slave-holders are ' united as one man in the fixed 
and unalterable determination to maintain their 
rights, and defend their property!' Who attacks 
their 'rights^ or their 'property?^ Nobody. We 
only ask that they should restore to other people 
their Wrights' and * property.' *Be the conse- 
quences what they may,' we ivill not, say the slave- 
holders. THEN YOU MUST TAKE THE 
CONSEQUENCES. We have done our duty. 

"The laws admitting the right of slavery 
are a complete extinction of all the obliga- 
tions of mankind." 

" Suppose the intelligence should reach this city 
to-day, that the slaves had risen in insurrection, and 
were scattering dismay and death through the South, 
would not the veriest child know the cause? ' They 
ARE FIGHTING for their FREEDOM,' would be the 
universal cry." 

" It may be supposed that the press can be shack- 
led, and made to say nothing seriously offensive to 
slave-holders — the wildest nonsense. To effect it 
the nation must pass through the crucible of an- 
archy into a neiv mode of exist ence.^^ 



188 

The followin"^ is the conclusion of a narrative of 
the efforts of a slave to escape from bondage. The 
cause of the negro is described with apparent appro- 
bation. 

"They went on board a vessel; and, during a 
serene evening in that delicious climate, the trader 
reposed himself upon the deck. In the dead of the 
night, the slave contrived to rid himself of his hand- 
cuffs, and groped until he grasped an axe; and, thus 
armed, stood over the sleeping man. He waked 
him and told his purpose. ' Then God have mercy 
on me,^ said the slave-trader. ' God will not have 
mercy on you, neither will I,' said the slave, and 
beat out his brains." 

We will not, by multiplying our extracts, aid in 
giving circulation to their ravings. We have pre- 
sented sufficient to satisfy the candid reader, that 
the abolitionists, so far from entertaining a repug- 
nance to insurrection, have directed their efforts to 
that object, and pursued a course which has, and can 
have, no other motive. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Resources and power of the abolitionists — Num- 
ber of Societies — Collections — Publicatioiis, ^c. 

It requires no profound investigation of the 
character, progress, and resources of the abolition- 
ists to convince us, that the cause of union and order 
has, in them, dangerous opponents. It will be seen 
by the following statements, mostly derived from 
their own publications, that their past progress has 
been rapid almost beyond parallel. But a few years 
have elapsed, since their black banner was given to 
the breeze. At that time the scheme was novel; 
and its advocates were regarded with universal con- 
tempt. To what must we ascribe their advance ? 
To the justice of their cause, answers the abolition- 
ist. The crusades then are to be regarded with 
admiration; and Mahomet and his fanatical follow- 
ers, whose progress was even more rapid than the 
abolitionists, are also to be considered as triumph- 
ing in the justice of their cause. Joanna Southcote, 
too, was a true prophetess; and Matthias, by the 
same rule, is entitled to all the reverence which 
some of the fanatics of New York manifested to- 
wards him. Human nature is not always to be de- 
pended on. Few schemes of imposture or fanati- 
cism are too gross for popular credulity; and when 
talents, wealth, and religious zeal or hypocrisy unite 
to urge a cause, it must bear features singularly re- 
pulsive if it fails to make proselytes. 



190 

The abolitionists commenced their operations at 
a period peculiarly fortunate for their designs. A 
protracted peace, our undisturbed tranquillity and 
growing wealth, had relaxed the love of country 
which once characterized our people, had engender- 
ed jealousies between different sections of our coun- 
try, had encouraged religious fanaticism, and engen- 
dered a general discontent, an impatience of the 
monotony of the times, and a thirst for excitement, 
highly favourable to any scheme of agitation. This 
state of the popular mind has been artfully consult- 
ed, by the abolitionists. How far they have already 
succeeded will be seen: how far tliey will be per- 
mitted to carry their treasonable designs hereafter, 
time must make manifest. 

The success of the agitators in organizing socie- 
ties is almost incredible. But a few months since 
they were sneered at as " a few miserable fanatics." 
Since that time they have formed societies through- 
out all the non-slave-holding states; and are pro- 
gressing in this organization with undiminished 
rapidity. The following extracts state the number 
of the societies to be two hundred and fifty — 
subsequent publications boast of three hundred. 

From '' Human Rights.^' 

"This new paper is not started as a means of 
pecuniary profit; it is not sent out by any one man. 
Thousands of our fellow citizens have associated in 
different parts of our country to obtain the freedom 
of the slaves, — yes, of two and a quarter mil' 
lions of Americans, who, shame to tell it, are in 
this Republic slaves. Already there are numbered 
more than two hundred Anti-Slavery Societies, 
acting through a central Society, called the " Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society." 



191 
From ^^ Human Rights,'^ 

" PROGRESS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAUSE. 

" Dead fish do not swim up stream. We may be 
sure, therefore, that when we see a tenant of the 
water making fine headway against the current, 
there is life in it. 

" The anti-slavery cause has made progress, every 
body knows. Who does not remember the ridicule 
that was thrown upon the handful of ** Fanatics" 
in Boston three years ago — upon the twenty-two 
men and two women in New York two years ago — 
upon the fifty or sixty men who met in Philadelphia 
a year and a-half ago — what a fine joke it was that 
such a handful should meet to form an American 
Society? Now this same Society numbers 250 
Auxiliaries, in 13 states. 

" Five of these are State Societies." 

From the second Jinnual Report of the New 
England Jlnti- Slavery Society, presented I5th 
January, 1834. 

" What is now the prospect? 

" A few pens, a few periodicals, a few tracts, and 
a few limited agencies have electrified the nation, 
and already stirred up a mighty host to plead and 
labor for the oppressed. Our cause is rapidly get- 
ting supremacy in New England. It has received 
accession of wealth, of talent, of free -and of un- 
conquerable zeal, that insures its speedy triumph." 

From the same publication. 

" In addition to that Society (American A. S. S.) 
and our own, (New England A. S. S.) we have a 
large number of male and female Anti-Slavery So- 
cieties in various parts of our land, which embrace 



192 

the names of thousands who are pledged to the doc- 
trine of immediate emancipation. These Societies 
are multiplying with a rapidity which is truly as- 
tonishing." 

From the Emancipator of August, 
"PROGRESS OF ANTI-SLAVERY. 

" Several letters announcing the formation of auxiliaries, 
and containing copies of constitutions and lists of officers, 
must be omitted for want of room. The organization of 
Anti-Slavery Societies is going on with most cheering ra- 
pidity. 

"In Bennington, Vt., an Anti-Slavery Society was formed 
on the 4th of July, with 140 members. President, Stephen 
Hinsdill ; Secretary, James Ballard. A liberal subscription 
was raised for publications. 

" In Union Village, Washington co., N. Y., the Green- 
wich Aux. Anti-Slavery Society, was formed on the 4th of 
July. President, Henry Holmes ; Secretary, Edwin An- 
drews. Large number of members. 

" In Nunda, Livingston co., N. Y., a society was formed 
on the same day, with 160 members. 

" At Oberlin, Loraine co., Ohio, on the 25th June, an aux- 
iliary was formed with 230 members. 

" Auxiliary societies have been also formed in the follow- 
ing places, not heretofore acknowledged. 
Brunswick, Medina co., Ohio. Geneva, Ashtabula co., Ohio. 
Milan, Huron co., do. Morgan, do. do. 

Lyme, do. do. Kingsville, do. do. 

Kinsman, Trumbull co., do. Jefferson, do. do. 

Hartford, do. do. Huntsburgh, Georgia co., do. 

Cadiz, do. Claridon, do. do. 

Greenville, Mercer co., Pa. Streetsboro', Portage co., do. 
Butler, Butler co., do. Kingston, N. H. 

W. Middletown, , Pa. Ware, Mass. 

Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Andover, Ashtabula co., Ohio. 

Boscawen, N. H. (Rev. Samuel Wood, D. D., Pres.; Abra- 
ham Robertson, Cor. Sec.) 

" Most of those in the above list in Ohio and Pa. were 
formed by the agency of Mr. James Loughhead. Mr. Joseph 
G. Wilson has been labouring with good success in Medina 
and Huron counties, Ohio. Mr. Theodore D. Weld is lec- 
turing with his usual success in the towns on the Ohio River. 



193 

Most cheering have been the results of his labours in Wash- 
ington, Pa. and Stuebenville, Ohio. In the former place he 
delivered fifteen lectures and two addresses to the colored 
people. 

" Messrs. Phelps and Thompson have recently visited 
Andover, and notwithstanding the forbidding neutrality, 
which the authorities of the Theological Seminary have 
thought it important to adopt, there is a fair prospect that 
immediate abolition will be openly espoused at length by a 
large portion of the students. 

" In Middlebury College, Vt., the students are sympathiz- 
ing deeply in the good cause." 

Fro7n " Human Rights^' of September. 

"NEW SOCIETIES. 

"At the late meeting of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Conference of New-Hampshire, an Anti-Slavery 
Society was formed of about 70 members, ministers 
of that denomination. 

" In Northeast, Erie co.. Pa., a society has been 
organized auxiliary to the Am. A. S. Society, with 
encouraging prospects. 

" The following are reported as organized in R. 
I. by Mr. Stanton: One at Natick, 125 members; 
a Ladies' Society in that vicinity, 150 members; a 
Young Men's Society in the same neighbourhood, 
number of members not known; at North Scituate, 
220 members; at Valley Falls, 70 members. On 
the 1st of August an auxiliary Anti-Slavery Society 
was formed at Clarksfield, Ohio — John Hough, Pres. 
Thomas T. Husted, Sec. 

" The A. S. Society of Bradford, Ms. was formed 
on the 27th July. Rev. Gardner B. Perry, Pres. 
Dr. Geo. Cogswell, Secretary." 

Their collections and resources appear to be al- 
most boundless. They are able to raise any amount 
necessary to prosecute, with effect, their scheme of 
incendiary agitation. Their prominent abettors are 
17 



194 

generally affluent and zealous men; and it appears 
only necessary to vote that a certain sum is requir- 
ed, and it is immediately contributed. The follow- 
ing extract is from a late address. 

" Dear Brethren, — At the last annual meeting 
of the American Anti-Slavery Society it was 

" Resolved, That an effort be made to raise 30,000 
dollars for the use of the Society the present year, 
and that the abolitionists present, pledge themselves 
to raise such sums as they may respectively offer. 

" Donations and pledges were immediately ob- 
tained, amounting ^14,500. 

" Additional pledges have since been obtained in 
Boston, to the amount of 4,000 dollars. The sum 
of 1 1,500 remains to be raised. As there are known 
to be more than two hundred Anti-Slavery Socie- 
ties on kindred principles with the American, we 
have no doubt this sum can speedily be made up. — 
Each society has only to raise 150 dollars, and the 
work is done. We believe that those societies which 
remain unpledged will joyfully come forward to do 
their proportion, as soon as called on." 

This ^30,000 was exclusively appropriated to the 
support of their publications for one year. The im- 
mense sums expended on agents, schools, &c. &c. — 
are raised in addition to the above. The pecuniary 
resources of the abolitionists, had they no other 
source of power, are sufficient almost to revolution- 
ize a land. The peculiar position and character of 
our national Government render any direct opposi- 
tion to the domestic rights of the South, danger- 
ous; but when a large and well organized party, 
comprising many men of talent and energy, and 
possessed of pecuniary resources almost as great as 
those of the confederacy under which our revolu- 
tionary contest was commenced, wars directly and 



195 

openly against the rights, feelings, and even the 
existence of certain members of the Union — who 
can be so blind as not to see the consequences? Who 
cannot see that submission on the part of the South 
would end in her destruction? 

The following extract from the September No. 
of the Human Rights, cannot fail to undeceive those 
who have hitherto regarded the abolitionists as a 
powerless band of malcontents. 

*^ Resources of abolitionists. — Those editors 
who have complimented Mr. Arthur Tappan as de- 
fraying nearly the whole expense of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society, are requested to examine the 
receipts of our Treasurer, as published in the Anti- 
Slavery Record. The numbers of that work, up 
to the present month, acknowledge the receipt of 
^8512,01; of which ^1750 is, or might be, credited 
to Mr. A. Tappan. Liberal as his donations are, if 
he were to withhold them altogether, we believe 
the deficiency would not long be felt. Even the 
most infatuated slave-holders must be blinder than 
we suppose them, if they do not understand by this 
time, that the hearts and purses of tens of thou- 
sands are devoted to this cause. '^ 

The resources and power of the abolitionists are 
exhibited in the number and extent of their publi- 
cations. Perhaps no party in this country ever ex- 
pended as much as the abolitionists in publications 
intended to operate on the public mind. We are 
told in one of their reports, that " the society has 
published one hundred and twenty-two thousand 
copies of various pamphlets, besides the gratuitous 
distribution of copies of the Emancipator and nu- 
merous circulars. They have also assisted in the 
circulation of large works." The resources and 



196 

energies of a society which can, in addition to its 
regular expenses, circulate 122,000 copies of pam- 
phlets, must be much greater than those of any 
political association, which this country has yet wit- 
nessed. The following "Plan of Publications," 
from the August number of the Emancipator, will 
exhibit the number of their regular publications and 
the extent of the different editions, 

"This number of the Emancipator is the first 
of the monthly series. It will be issued to a 
great extent gratuitously. Already 50,000 copies 
of the small paper entitled HUMAN RIGHTS, 
have been sent forth, and 50,000 copies of the 
ANTI-SLAVERY RECORD, for July.— The 
EMANCIPATOR and the SLAVE'S FRIEND 
will complete the series for the month. Next 
month the same series will be repeated." 

It must be remembered that these papers are 
gratuitously distributed. Thus it will be seen 
that every week fifty thousand publications, made 
up with great skill, and containing the most inflam- 
matory and dangerous matter — are distributed. A 
large portion of these, no doubt, inundate the 
South. The remainder are intended for those in 
the North, " who read but cannot reason." Who 
can wonder at the results effected by the abolition- 
ists, when he contemplates the tremendous energy 
of the means employed? 

The following statement is made by the Emanci- 
pator, of the number of papers distributed in the 
month of July. 

" Human Rights, 50,000 copies, 

A. S. Record, 50,000 " 

Emancipator, 50,000 " 

Slave's Friend, 25,000 " 



Total, 175,000 



197 

The Slave's Friend, here mentioned, is a periodi- 
cal designed ostensibly for children, but intended, 
beyond a doubt, in reality, to operate on the slaves. 
It is written in very simple language, and is deco- 
rated with inflammatory pictures. Its very title 
betrays its real character; and its contents prove it 
to be intended for the slave alone. 

It must not be supposed that the publications of 
the Anti-Slavery Society, comprise all the periodi- 
cals which sustain their principles. The following 
extract from the Emancipator will correct any such 
erroneous impression. — "Among the things that 
encourage us, not the least, is the rapid increase of 
anti-slavery presses. Nearly half the newspapers 
in our exchange list, about one hundred, admit arti- 
cles favourable to emancipation, and a large number 
of them are decidedly anti-slavery. We shall en- 
deavour soon to exhibit a list of the anti-slavery 
newspapers in the United States."* 

It is impossible that any reasoning man, can con- 
template the resources and activity of the abolition- 
ists, and wonder at their progress. It is impossible 
that any patriot can view, in connection, their past 
success, their present energies and activity, and 
their future prospects, without coming to the con- 

* In the list of anti-slavery pnblications advertised by the 
Society, vi^e find upwards of fifty different publications, 
prints, &c., oflfered for sale. The following are some of the 
articles advertised. 

" Picture of a slave in chains, with the negro's complaint, 
in poetry. Our countrymen in chains, with poetry, by J. G. 
Whittier. 

" Anti-Slavery handkerchiefs, ornamented with 4 cuts, and 
extracts from the Slave's Friend, printed with indelible ink, 
price 50 cents per dozen. 

" Anti-Slavery Seals, giving a fair impress of a shive in 
chains on sealing wax, price, single, 20 cents. 

" Plaster images of a slave in chains, price, single, 50 cts," 
17* 



198 

elusion, that, either this band of traitors must be 
crushed, or the Union abandoned. They cannot 
exist together. 

Let the South look to it. We have demonstrated 
that the advocates of abolition are neither few nor 
feeble; that they are wealthy, powerful and united; 
possessed of a number of influential presses; and 
led on by men whose intemperate zeal is only 
equalled by their untiring energy. Their strength 
is despised because it is not known. Let him who 
takes an interest in this matter examine the open 
evidence of facts; let him observe the extended and 
insidious operation of presses, agents and societies; 
let him mark the progress and results of these ef- 
forts for the last few years; and then, if he is still 
incredulous, and still secure, he may sleep on, until 
he is roused by the glare of the midnight conflagra- 
tion, or startled by the whoops of the negro at his 
chamber door. 

Let the North .beware. Let not the wise and 
well affected regard the operations of the incen- 
diaries with a sneer. The Union and its glories, 
the commerce and manufactures of the North, the 
peace and safety of the South, the tranquillity, integ- 
rity, and honour of our country are in peril — in im- 
minent peril. If the abolitionists are permitted to 
make the North the scene of a warfare the most 
deadly upon the South — it is vain to affect igno- 
rance of the results — separation is inevitable. We 
repeat, they must be crushed or the Union aban- 
doned. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



The course of the Abolitionists prevents abolition 
— Jlggravates the condition of the slaves, <5'C. 

The abolitionists never deign to weigh the con- 
sequences of their actions. They determine that a 
pecuHar course is required by an accordance with 
their sublimated notions of abstract right, and pur- 
sue it, wholly regardless of the results. — Are they 
mad, or guilty, or both? Think they that they can 
deluge our land with blood — and preserve their 
souls from the crimson taint of murder? Think 
they that they can unloose rapine, and lust, and 
slaughter upon their native country — and that her 
shrieks will not rise to Heaven against them? Not 
responsible for the consequences of their madness! 
It has ever been the plea of the bigot and tyrant. 
The darkest crimes on record have been committed 
under the frenzy, real or affected, of fanaticism. 
Cities have been wasted, realms destroyed, in the 
name of God. But will God hold them guiltless 
because profanity was added to guilt, and His holy 
name impiously borrowed to sanction a wanton 
waste of the blood of his creatures? 

In the responsibility incurred by the abolitionists, 
the consequences of their policy to the slave, will 
not be the lightest article. If slavery be the evil 
they proscribe, how much have they to answer for 
in its perpetuation. If abolition be a benevolent and 
holy scheme, how can they be justified for the pros- 



200 

tration of every reasonable hope of final emancipa- 
tion. They are the real anti-abolitionists of the land. 
They are the worst foes of the slave. Their mad- 
ness has riveted his chains; and if his freedom be 
ever attained, it will be when their reckless opposi- 
tion to the rights of the South is forgotten. 

They admit that the slave can only be emanci- 
pated by his master. To effect that result, the master 
must be convinced and conciliated. What measures 
have they taken to persuade or win him into their 
views? They have trampled upon his rights — en- 
dangered his property — denounced him in the vilest 
billingsgate the language can afford — excited his 
slaves to discontent, and endangered his life, and the 
honour of his wife and daughters. Are not these 
most winning persuasives to abolition! Is not this 
policy certain to soothe the feelings, sway the senti- 
ments, and insure the confidence of the slave-holder? 

" The truth is, and it must be suppressed no 
longer — we have been hired to abet oppression, to 
be the tool of tyrants — to look on coolly, while ten 
millions of our brethren have been stripped of every 
right, and worse than murdered.'' — First An- 
nual Report. 

" The man who seizes another in New York, and 
drags him into bondage, (alluding to the legal arrest 
of a fugitive slave, under the constitution of the 
United States) whatever laws he may have in his 
favour, is to be REGARDED AS A ROBBER 
AND PIRATE!"— /^>/^. 

" Slave-holding is piracy, equally atrocious with 
slave-trading; and if there is any difference in crimi- 
nality, slave-holding is the worst of the two!'' 
— Speech of Mr. Phelps. 

"The slave-states are sodoms, and almost every 
village family is a brothel." — SpeechofMr. Thome. 

But why should we multiply quotations? Suffice 



201 

it that they never speak of them, save to calumniate 
and abuse them — never address them but in the gen- 
tle and paternal language of " robbers," " pirates," 
" tyrants," " monsters," ^* wretches," and other epi- 
thets of an equally conciliatory character. And 
can these men affect to believe that this course is 
prompted by a sincere desire to persuade the slave- 
holder to free his slave! 

The very act of interference itself is a violation 
of their rights, and an outrage on their feelings. If 
there existed a disposition in favour of emancipation, 
this act of indelicate and insulting interference, this 
pragmatical and irritating violation of the rights and 
proprieties of social life, would be certain to extin- 
guish it. If slavery be an evil — who so likely to 
know it as those who live in the midst of it? If 
slavery be cruel, the Southern people lack neither 
religion nor benevolence, and would be just as likely 
to feel the " gentle dint of pity" without, as with, 
vituperation and insult. Previous to the movements 
of the abolitionists, in many parts of the South, a 
disposition favourable to emancipation prevailed. 
They would, if undisturbed, have done all that was 
possible. Foreign interference, while it has natu- 
rally irritated the South, has rendered any act tend- 
ing to encourage abolition, altogether dangerous and 
imprudent. They will not allow strangers to in- 
trude to their fire-sides and kick them into certain 
measures; and if they were so singularly destitute of 
manly spirit, they cannot be ignorant that such a 
policy would be attended with inevitable destruc- 
tion. 

The abolitionists have been at work for years; 
they have, probably, expended hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars; they have enlisted the sympathy 
and aid of misguided thousands — yet what good have 
they done? Have they liberated a slave? Not one! 



20% 

On the contrary, the process of individual emanci- 
pation has been wholly checked. Have they con- 
vinced or converted a single slave-holder? NOT 
ONE! And those who before encouraged the hope 
of eventual emancipation — now regard the scheme 
and its authors with abhorrence. If their policy have 
not succeeded in attaining a single advantage, why 
persist in it? If their past exertions have not won 
over a single slave-holder, their future efforts can- 
not. Why then agitate and endanger a nation; why 
expend thousands, not only without benefit, but with- 
out the reasonable hope, however remote, of future 
advantage? Thei/ knoiu that they cannot win the 
slave-holder into the support of their schemes; why 
persist in their present policy ? Because the pretence 
is affected — is the mask of deep and dangerous de- 
signs upon the slaves. The abolitionists are not all 
insane; they do not spend their money, exert their 
talents, and waste their time, in a hopeless and ab- 
surd attempt to win the master. They care not for 
his aid. Years ago they said in the Emancipator, 
" Slavery will never be abolished until it is done 
BY THE SWORD, or the fear of the sword;'' 
and added, that " the slaves will soon be free.'' 
This was then, and still is the policy. They cry 
peace, peace — but pursue a course which is designed 
to end, and must end (unless the South erect herself 
and interpose the only shield which can ward off 
the blow,) in a servile war, and render the whole 
South a Pandemonium, from which the shout of 
exulting rapine, and the shriek of murder and vio- 
lation will go forth. 

" But the slave has cause to reproach the aboli- 
tionist, not merely for the prostration of all future 
hope of emancipation, but for the aggravation of his 
present condition. It is impossible that the intem- 
perate advocacy of the emancipation of the slaves, 



203 

can fail to excite the prejudice and ill-feeling of a 
majority of the slave-holders; and it is equally im- 
possible to prevent a share of those feelings being 
extended to the unfortunate object of the abolitionist's 
benevolence. Even where the irritating interference 
of the abolitionists is insufficient to alienate the kind- 
ness of the master from the slave, it succeeds in cre- 
ating danger and suspicion. The slave, misled by 
his new friends, becomes discontented and refrac- 
tory; the master loses his confidence, and measures 
of precaution and restraint become absolutely ne- 
cessary. The Charleston Courier, speaking of these 
fruits of abolition, says: — "It is certain that their 
labours thus far have produced only evil to the race 
which they have selected as the objects of their de- 
vilish philanthropy. At the North they have raised 
the mob against the property and lives of their sable 
proteges, and at the South they have only added to 
the rigor of the code noir, and caused a repeal of 
laws permitting emancipation.'' 

Another moderate and respectable Southern jour- 
nal says, — ** They certainly cannot be assured of the 
detestation in which they are already held by the 
free blacks of the South, whose happiness and liberty 
they have sensibly abridged, and whose lives, in 
some instances, they have put in jeopardy. Even 
those of the slaves who have heard of them, curse 
their names as the authors of numerous vexations 
and privations to which they are now necessarily 
subjected. The inquisitorial visits, patroles, searches, 
confinement to plantations — the refusal of usual in- 
dulgences, and the exaction of additional duties, are 
all the fruits of fanaticism. The blacks, who see 
and know the cause, would be as ready to inflict 
summary vengeance upon Tappan, Garrison, Cox, 
Thompson, and their co-labourers, as their masters. 
Do the incendiaries know that they are absolutely 



204 

riveting the chains they profess to wish to see 
loosened? We should think not. But let them be 
satisfied that such is the fact." 

The following from the Richmond Inquirer is also 
entitled to attention. 

" These men are not only impertinent, but per- 
nicious intermeddlers. They not only bring mis- 
chief upon the whites, but they aggravate the very 
evils which they profess to remedy. They strengthen 
the cord of slavery itself They compel us to treat 
them with a severity which is as painful to the slave 
as it is irksome to the owner. A regard for our own 
security must impose upon them additional restric- 
tions — and in case these vile miscreants should ever 
succeed in raising rebellion among them, they alone 
will be held responsible, in the eyes of God and 
man, for all the blood which will flow. It is thus 
that they are doing serious mischief, both to the 
whites and to the blacks — aggravating the very evil 
which they profess to palliate." 

In confirmation of these statements we subjoin an 
extract from the address of the members of the 
African Methodist Church of Baltimore. 

" We do most firmly and sincerely believe, that 
the dissemination of inflammatory appeals addressed 
mainly to the prejudices and passions, without re- 
ference to reason, instead of promoting the object 
professed to be had in view, will greatly aggravate 
the evils already existing, and create others of a far 
more alarming and calamitous nature; will render 
the situation of that portion of the coloured people 
now in possession of liberty, awfully precarious — 
rivet the fetter still more closely on the slave, and 
jeopard the prosperity and happiness, nay, the life 
itself, of the whole population of the southern states, 
both white and black. 

" The conviction thus expressed is the rational 



205 

consequence of cool and deliberate reflection on the 
subject, when contemplated abstractly and without 
regard to actual occurrences; but it has been power- 
fully corroborated by the developements which have 
already attended the efforts of the licentious and 
misguided fanaticism now in progress. But a short 
time has elapsed since all of us were permitted to 
worship God undisturbedly in our own sanctuaries, 
under our own vine and fig-tree — since we were 
protected in the enjoyment of civil privileges, and 
allowed a common participation with our white 
brethren, in many of the comforts of domestic life. 
Now, in many sections of the country, both north 
and south of us, our congregation for religious ex- 
ercises is either prohibited altogether, or watched 
with a jaundiced eye; the civil blessings with which 
we were measurably favoured are denied or re- 
stricted; our most innocent actions are exposed to 
the scrutiny of suspicion; and our homes and fire- 
sides threatened with ruin. 

" Influenced by these considerations, and deter- 
mined by the harmless rectitude of our deportment 
to manifest our heartfelt and unconquerable abhor- 
rence of the atrocious attempts of mistaken, hot- 
headed zealots to plunge the country into anarchy 
and discord, and to deluge it with torrents of blood, 
we do hereby sacredly pledge ourselves not to re- 
ceive any of the vile, mischievous, and incendiary 
publications, now so industriously scattered abroad; 
to arrest the circulation of such as may come under 
our observation — of which we respectfully ask the 
postmasters to take notice — and to destroy them with- 
out perusal; and, in fine, by every effort within our 
power, to put a period to the operations of this en- 
gine of bloodshed and torture. We do most earnestly 
entreat those over whom we have any control or 
influence, either officially or as friends, to co-operate 
18 



206 

with us in the suppression of this most pernicious 
— this fatal evil — to lend their most ardent and 
cheerful endeavours to prevent the diffusion of a 
spirit of insubordination and rebellion. And being 
fully persuaded that our opinions faithfully and truly 
reflect those of the church to vi^hich we are attached, 
we do most unfeignedly and anxiously beseech those 
engaged in the propagation of abolition principles, 
and the distribution of abolition tracts, periodicals, 
and pamphlets, to abstain from their unasked and 
unwelcome interference in our concerns, and if they 
have a spark of compassion, sympathy, or philan- 
thropy in their bosoms, to permit us to enjoy our 
existence in security and peace." 

To this eloquent and affecting appeal — this pa- 
thetic detail of the sufferings visited upon the 
blacks of the South, by the sinister efforts of their 
false friends — the abolitionists alone could be in- 
sensible. Careless of the consequences, they go on. 
The union of the States may be sundered by their 
madness — still they persist; the afflicted patriots of 
their country beseech them to forbear — but they 
heed it not; the unhappy objects of their affected 
benevolence implore them to desist — but onward 
still, over the trampled constitution, the peace, the 
hopes, and the happiness of their country, they stride 
forward to their object. Such is their philanthropy.* 

* A late number of the Emancipator contains the following' 
article. It will be seen that the abolitionists are aware of the 
dreadful consequences of their policy — but are determined to 
persevere in it. It will be seen also that while they acknow- 
ledge the calamitous tendency of their course, their only re- 
sponse is — " Let them drive out missionaries and school- 
teachers — bury the key of knowledge — double the fetters, and 
lengthen the lash." Such is their kindness and affection for 
the slaves. Their direct aim is also acknowledged to be, not to 
convince the slave-holder, but to excite others against him. 
"To use this very madness and cruelty of the slave-holder as 



207 

They would wade to their purpose through a sea of 
kindred blood — cheer on the hell-hounds of civil 
war, and in their horrible triumph, while the shrieks 
of an expiring land ring in their ears, wave above 
the scene the crimson and reeking banner of Phi- 
lanthropy! 

an argument to rouse the Christian world against the sin of 
slavery." 

" The fruits of Abolitionism. — Some enemies of immediate 
emancipation, with great apparent delight, point us to the pre- 
sent state of the South. 'There,' say they, ' we told you so. 
See the masters exasperated, and recanting all their purposes 
of ultimate emancipation. See the slave hound in double 
fetters. See the free coloured man persecuted, and treiTibling 
with fear of banishment or death. See the schools for the 
coloured people all shut, and the last rays of hope and know- 
ledge blotted out together. See every Northern man who had 
visited the South on an errand of mercy, fleeing for his life. 
This is the fruit oi your labours.' 

"Some, we can hardly call them friends of the oppressed, 
may be persuaded by such arguments to give over. They 
may say, ' We have borne our testimony, but it is of no avail ; 
now, therefore, let us wash our hands of the guilt, and leave 
the slave-holders to themselves.' Not so, brethren — we have 
more to do. Thousands of prayers are going up to God daily, 
from those who in the midst of slavery, have not bowed the 
knee to Baal, for our perseverance. Let them drive out mis- 
sionaries and school-teachers — bury the key of knowledge — 
double the fetters, and lengthen the lash. Let them destroy 
or banish every man who^will not receive on his forehead 
the brand of the monf?;ter — perpetual slavery. — What is the 
language of God's providence to usi Clearly this: To use 
this very madness and cruelty of the slave-holders as an argutneiit 
to rouse the Christian world agai7ist the SIN OF SLAVERY." 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Coiirse of the abolitionists a violation of the 
Constitution — An infraction of the rights and 
the laws of the South, ^c. 

In discussing the subject of Domestic Slavery in 
this country, it is proper that we should refer spe- 
cially and distinctly to the sovereign rights of the 
Southern states on this question and all minor ques- 
tions arising from it. It is, however, scarcely ne- 
cessary to prove what is not doubted, or to urge the 
truth of assertions which no individual in the coun- 
try will venture to deny. 

The rights of the South do not exist under, but 
over, the Constitution. They existed before this 
Government was called into being. The Constitu- 
tion is rather sanctioned by them, than they by the 
Constitution. Had not that instrument admitted 
the sovereignty of those rights, it would never have 
itself been admitted by the South. It bowed in 
deference to rights older in their date, stronger in 
their claims, and holier in their nature, than any 
which the Constitution of the confederacy can 
boast. 

Let no man then deceive himself. Let him not 
think that the rights of the South may be changed 
by a change of our national Constitution. Those 
rights are out of the reach of the nation as a nation. 
The confederacy may crumble to pieces, the Con- 



209 

stitution may pass away — but these rights will re- 
main unshaken — will exist while the South exists — 
and when they fall — the South will perish with 
them. It will be admitted, that the states which 
entered into the compact of Union were possessed, 
individually, of full sovereignty, and were as inde- 
pendent of any and all earthly power as nations can 
be. If they were not thus sovereign and indepen- 
dent, they had no authority or power to enter into 
the articles of confederation. 

It will be admitted, that in entering into this con- 
federacy, and in adopting the Constitution of 1787, 
they lost none of their exclusive right of legisla- 
tion on the subject of domestic slavery in their own 
borders, but remained, as to that question, as 
sovereign and independent as at first. 

It will be admitted, that instead of losing any 
of their high and sovereign power on the subject 
referred to, that power was expressly reserved both 
in the articles of confederation and in the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and that the non-slave- 
holding states not only admitted and sanctioned it, 
but bound themselves to restore fugitive slaves 
from the South, and to secure a representation based 
upon the slave population. 

It will be admitted, that the rights of the slave- 
holding states on the subject of slavery, have never 
been surrendered, never been questioned, never been 
weakened nor diminished; that they are, in rela- 
tion to that question, what they were before they 
entered into the confederation, sovereign and inde- 
pendent; and that the non-slaveholding states are, 
in reference to the same question, what they were 
before that compact — foreign communities. 

Virginia or South Carolina, then, has, in refer- 
ence to the subject of slavery, no more connexion 
with us than Russia or Great Britain; we have no 
18* 



210 

greater right to interfere with her domestic legisla- 
tion on the subject of slavery, than with the inter- 
nal relations of those kingdoms; nor is she under 
any greater obligation than they would be, to sub- 
mit to such interference, without vindicating her 
rights, and punishing those who dare to disturb her 
tranquillity. 

If a Northern State directly violates these rights, 
or permits her citizens to do so,* she not only 
breaks the compact, but makes it the duty of the 
injured state to defend herself, as an independent 
state should, from a violation of her sovereignty. 

The non-slaveholding states entered into this 
union with their eyes open. They knew that the 
compact was subject to this reservation. They 
pledged themselves to observe it. Every thing 
sacred to us as patriots, Americans, and men stands 
pledged for our honourable adherence to the faith 
then plighted — the promise then solemnly and un- 
derstandingly extended. 

Did our fathers right? No union could have been 
effected unless the rights of the South had been 
thus secured. Conscious of this, they were willing 
to suffer what they could not cure, and gave their 
sanction to the only union that could have been 
formed. The result has shown that they were 
right. Our people have prospered. The friends 
of freedom, humanity, and religion throughout the 
world, have reason to rejoice in the compromise 
then entered into. 

The North is not responsible, morally nor politi- 
cally, for the existence of slavery in this country. 

* The sovereign who refuses to cause a reparation to be 
made of the damage caused by his subject, or to punish the 
guilty, or, in short, to dehver him up, renders himself in 
some measure an accomplice in the injury, and becomes re- 
sponsible for it. — ValttVs Law of Natims, 



211 

It never had, has not now, and never will have, 
power over the subject. If it be a sin, the blame 
rests not upon the North — if it be a curse, the 
North, at least, is not blasted by it. The North 
has not been compelled to pay for the support of 
the South; she has not been taxed to encourage her 
labour, nor have her exports passed through her 
ports and given the breath of life to her commerce. 
The North need not trouble her conscience nor 
excite her sympathies, in relation to the sins or the 
afflictions of the South. The South will bear her 
afflictions with what fortitude she may; and as for 
the sins which excite so holy a horror in the bosoms 
of the immaculate abolitionists, she will take care 
that the North is not burthened with any accounta- 
bility for them. Let the North stand off, and all 
will be well. 

It ought not to be necessary to urge the obligation, 
which requires us to regard, with reverence, the 
sacred charter of our national existence. It ought 
not to be necessary to remind any portion of our 
people, that honour, probity, patriotism require 
us to observe its provisions. If the violator of the 
law be entitled to punishment and abhorrence, what 
should be the penalty of him who strikes at the 
source of all law; who would tear asunder the 
bond which unites millions happily together, and 
leave our country to all the horrors of jarring an- 
archy and lawless violence? If any thing be enti- 
tled to reverence or regard, it is our sacred Consti- 
tution — the barrier which protects us from popular 
turbulence, from intestine war, from social and 
political confusion and collision. The consequence 
of its downfall or of the violation of its provisions, no 
fancy can adequately conceive. All that we desire 
as a people is attained — all that we fear is avoided, 
by its aid. Let it be destroyed, whether by open 



212 

violence, or insidious opposition, and where will 
the consequences terminate? Will the violator pause 
there; or, having trampled on the charter of the 
country, will he strike at those of the states, and 
break down all the barriers which protect weakness 
and innocence from lawless and brutal force? Let 
the principle be established, that a direct and solemn 
political compact may be vacated, without moral 
offence, by scheming and ambitious individuals — 
and human foresight cannot anticipate the calami- 
ties which will ensue. 

There may be, particularly in this country, trea- 
son without overt crime, which, though secured 
from the penalty of our lenient code — is still, in 
the eye of reason and justice, and before God and 
man, the basest treason. An evasion of an obliga- 
tion is as orreat a moral offence as its violation. The 
prosecution of an insidious but energetic war upon 
the slave-holding members of the Union — upon 
their liberties as states, and their existence as com- 
munities, must be regarded as a crime of the most 
dangerous and guilty character. The traitor who 
stabs at the life or honour of his country, in the 
mask of piety, and from behind a legal quibble, is 
as guilty as the open desperado who strikes at her 
in the face of day, and before all the world. 

The abolitionists, in urging their designs against 
the South, are guilt}^ of infringing the acknowledged 
rights of those states; of disregarding their own 
solemnly pledged faith to observe those rights, as 
sanctioned by the Federal compact; and of violat- 
ing that sense of propriety and duty, which requires 
that we should respect the domestic privileges and 
pursuits of others. 

Can this course of conduct result in any advan- 
tage to the objects of their benevolence, or to their 
white brethren of the South? It menaces evil to 



213 

both. It seeks to effect evil. It looks to revolu- 
tion; it teaches that the Constitution is '^ null and 
vold,''^ when opposed to their schemes; and contem- 
plates the prostration of every right, the dissolution 
of every tie, and the disregard of every obligation 
between them and the object of their ill-omened 
ambition. 

The Southern states have passed laws, prohibit- 
ing the dissemination of incendiary publications 
within their borders, and denouncing severe penal- 
ties against the offenders. In some states the offence is 
capital, and is punished with death. The abolition- 
ists, who send such publications into the state, vio- 
late these laws and incur their penalties. It is of 
no consequence in what manner they commit the 
crime, whether through the medium of the mails 
or by private emissaries; it is equally unimportant 
whether they are within the borders of the state at 
the time they committed the outrage upon its 
laws — the crime is equally great, and equally cer- 
tain. It may be alleged, in extenuation of the 
offence, that the offender is beyond the reach of 
justice: the same plea w^ould palliate the crime of 
the fugitive murderer. The offence is committed; 
the laws are violated; the crime is registered in 
heaven; and the criminal stands accountable to his 
own conscience and to God, as a felon — one who, if 
justice had its way, would perish ingnominiously 
on the scaffold. Such is the nature of the proceed- 
ings of the abolitionists. They are guilty of a 
CAPITAL CRIME — a cHmc which is regarded by 
those authorised to decide, as equal in guilt and 
peril, to MURDER. Yet they ask and obtain the 
aid of Christians; they call themselves philanthro- 
pists, and expect the praise and support of the 
lovers of virtue, peace, and order. 

So clear and distinct is their offence, so full the 



214 

evidence of its commission, that, should they be 
found within the borders of the states whose laws 
they have violated, they would be at once arrested, 
tried, and doubtless found guilty and hung. In- 
deed, as it is, there are great doubts whether the 
Southern states may not demand them from the 
states in which they now reside, as fugitives from 
fustice. Many profound jurists regard the right 
of the South to demand, and the duty of the North 
to give up, these violators of the law, as clear and 
unquestionable. 

The following able exposition of these views, 
extracted from the New York Courier and Enquir- 
er, merits an attentive perusal. 

'* If Tappan be guilty of violation of the laws of 
the South, and can be proved guilty, let some of 
the Southern executives demand him as a criminal 
at the hands of our executive, and if their demand 
be legal he will doubtless be surrendered. 

"If the distribution of inflammatory and sedi- 
tious papers in any Southern state, be an offence 
against their laws, and if it can be proved that 
Arthur Tappan has delivered or caused to be de- 
livered, in such state or states, papers coming with- 
in the bearing of the enactments — then we believe 
that on such charge he may be legally demanded, 
and must be surrendered. 

"The objections to this are: Firstly, that the al- 
ledged offence is not here capital. But what of that? 
In some of our states rape is not while in others it 
is a capital felony. But let a ravisher commit his 
crime in a state wherein that crime is punished — as 
it should be punished every where — with death, 
and let him subsequently to the commission, escape 
into a state by whose enactment the punishment is 
milder — that ravisher might be demanded and 
would be ceded to be tried, and if guilty, to suffer, 



215 

according the code of that state wherein the offence 
IS committed. 

"Therefore, if Arthur Tappan has committed in 
all or any of the Southern states, a crime punished 
capitally m such states or state— he may be demand- 
ed and must be surrendered to be tried and to suffer 
—if proved guilty— -according to the laws of that 
state. 

" Again it is contended that the crime of Arthur 
Tappan— 4f a crime by the laws of any Southern 
state — is not committed in that state. 

" In answer to this statement, we will first ad- 
vance an argument, and a most strong one, which has 
been brought to bear on this point before, as we find 
by an article in the Charleston Courier, wherein it 
is demonstrated — that in England the author of a 
libellous paper is tried by the laws and jury of the 
place wherein the libellous paper is delivered at the 
post office — not at the place where it is composed. 
And that such author is transferred by the sheriff of 
his own county to the sheriff of that next adjoining, 
till he be delivered for trial at the place wherein the 
libel was committed by the delivery of the libel- 
lous paper at the office. Now if this be true of 
libellous papers it is much more true of seditious 
papers; and if the delivery of these papers be sedi- 
tious at Charleston, the crime of sedition was com- 
mitted at Charleston, and Arthur Tappan may be 
demanded to take his trial for sedition at Charles- 
ton. And in this state, as we happen to know, the 
law is similar to the law in England. In the case 
of Root vs. King for a libel, the venire was laid in 
Delaware County, the residence of the Plaintiff, and 
there the question of libel was tried. And recent- 
ly, in our ow7i case, the Grand Jury of the County 
of Sullivan found an indictment against us for the 
publication of an alleged libel on the Post-master 



216 

at Monticello in Sullivan county, and although the 
libel was published in the county of New York, 
we were tried, and if found guilty, would have 
been punished in the former county. The same 
rule of law should, we conceive, be applicable to 
states as to counties in this instance; but we have 
a still stronger argument in favor of our position. 

" A citizen of New York, resident in this state, 
suborns another, or directly instigates him to go 
into South Carolina and there commit a murder, — 
thereby rendering himself an accessary before the 
fact to murder, and therefore liable to capital pun- 
ishment. The murder is committed in South Caro- 
lina — the murderer escapes to New York — is de- 
manded, and of course delivered up to take his trial 
at the place wherein the murder was committed. 
On his trial, proof is developed of the agency in 
the murder of an accessary before the fact to this 
murder committed in South Carolina, who is a resi- 
dent of New York, which place he has not quitted. 
Where would that accessary be tried? — clearly 
in the place where the crime to which he was an 
accessary was committed. On this point no one we 
presume can entertain a doubt; otherwise, as he 
cannot be tried in New York as an accessary to a 
crime not committed within her jurisdiction, he 
would escape punishment. 

" If, then, this be true in a case of murder, it 
must be equally true in case of Treason; and if the 
putting into circulation of the abolition pamphlets 
in South Carolina be treason — and if it can be 
proved that Arthur Tappan be accessary before the 
fact to the putting into circulation of those pam- 
phlets in South Carolina — then is Arthur Tappan, 
though he has not quitted New York, accessary be- 
fore the fact to treason committed in South Caro- 
lina. 



217 

<^ And again, if the circulation of abolition pam 
phlets be a capital offence in Carolina, and if persons 
charged with capital offences be mutually delivera- 
ble between the states of the Union as the Consti- 
tution provides, then Arthur Tappan, as accessary 
before the fact to a capital offence committed in 
South Carolina, may be demanded at the hands of 
our Executive, and if demanded must be delivered 
up to take his trial in South Carolina.^^ 

If the South have not, under the Constitution, the 
right to demand and punish those who stand on her 
borders, and fling amid her slaves incendiary and 
seditious publications — it is to be regretted that so 
important and necessary a protection was not pro- 
vided. Those who are willing to violate the laws 
and disturb the tranquillity of a state of this Union, 
should find no shelter from its sister states. 

But it may be doubted whether, if this right were 
fully corrceded to the South, she would descend to 
exercise it. The wrong comes, not from individu- 
als, but from a party in the North, which is per- 
mitted, by those states, to prosecute a systematic 
and organized war against the rights and the peace 
of the South. It is the duty of the North to crush 
them;* and any attempt on the part of the South to 
secure individuals of the mass, would be unworthy 
her dignity, and inadequate to the prostration, or 
even the discouragement of the conspiracy against 
her. 

* What would you say, if your own operatives were to 
become discontented and rebellious — threatening your houses 
with the torch and your families with the knife — and if we 
were to erect presses in our own bosom to print and circulate 
papers to blow them into flame 1 Would you not call upon 
us, to interfere for their suppression 1 — And may we not 
call upon you in the like spirit? — Richmond Enquirer, 
19 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



The Abolition of Slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia. 

The abolitionists, with all their presumption, do 
not venture to assert that Congress has a right to 
legislate on the slave question for the States. They 
do not, however, hesitate to allege the existence, and 
claim the exercise of that right in the District of 
Columbia. They have turned their whole force 
against this District. Falsehoods and calumnies 
against the slave-holders of the District are circu- 
lated throughout the Union; and the people of the 
remotest States are told, with all the declamatory 
cant of the abolition school, that, for the atrocities 
thus conjured up and presented to their imagina- 
tions, they are responsible. They are called upon, 
therefore, by every consideration, to clear their skirts 
from the horrid sin, by insisting on the abolition of 
slavery in the District. Great efforts are made to 
procure petitions to Congress on the subject; and it 
is probable that their application will be presented 
during the ensuing session, with several thousand 
names attached to it. The following is a copy of 
one of the petitions in circulation. 

" To the honourable the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of America: 

The petition of the undersigned, citizens of , 

humbly sheweth. That your petitioners feel them- 
selves bound by their duty to their country, to their 



219 

iellow-men, and to their God, to protest against the 
continuance of slavery and the slave-trade in 
the District of Cokimbia, and to pray your honour- 
able bodies to exercise your constitutional powers 
for their immediate abolition. 

" Remembering that the traffic in human flesh, 
when practised on the ocean, has been solemnly de- 
clared piracy by our own, and that it is so considered 
by almost all Christian nations, your petitioners do 
most earnestly implore that slavery, the necessary 
cause of the traffic, may no longer be permitted to 
exist in the Capital of this Republic." 

The subject thus forced upon the attention of our 
people, is one involving the most momentous con- 
siderations. Fully understood, the scheme of abo- 
lition in the District, must be generally reprehended. 
It may be regarded as the outposts of the great ques- 
tion; and, if carried, will insure a final and complete 
triumph to the conspirators in all their designs. 

The general government has no right to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia. 

The framers of the constitution could never have 
intended to give to the government jurisdiction over 
this delicate subject. So far as they could, they se- 
cured to the South exclusive control of the slave 
question. The difficulty before us could not be fore- 
seen by them, or express provisions would have been 
made to secure the country from this species of agi- 
tation. The South would never have sanctioned a 
constitution which gave to the general government 
any power, direct or indirect, to legislate on the 
slave question. They denied that power then, as 
they deny it now. They would not then submit to 
it; and subsequent events have induced no change 
of sentiment or feeling. 

The constitution, which so expressly withheld 
from the general government the power of legislation 



220 

on the subject of slavery, could not have designed 
to give it the power of agitation- — a power which 
would have annihilated all restraints, and laid the 
domestic rights of the South at the very feet of the 
central government. Let the general government 
but possess and exercise a right to agitate the subject 
of slavery in the South, to use the influence of her 
public councils, the power of her immense patronage, 
and of the treasury of the country — and she will not 
need the empty privilege of legislation. The South 
will be completely at her mercy. 

Should the abolitionists triumph in the approach- 
ing effort, they would make the general government 
an abolition engine. The measure of abolition in 
the District would be regarded as a direct and em- 
phatic approval of the course of the abolitionists. 
The fanatics would take fresh courage; the venal 
and time-serving would flock to a standard sustained 
by the government; and the cause would soon be 
considered " the cause of the country.'^ The pas- 
sage of the act referred to would put the seal of 
national sanction on the calumnies and vituperation 
of the abolitionists against the South; and would hold 
the citizens of that section of the country up to the 
detestation of the world, as brutal and fiendlike 
monsters, destitute of mercy and justice, and wholly 
sordid and savage in their character and habits. It 
would do more — it would extend to the slaves of 
the South, hopes that would madden them. The 
government itself would become incendiary; and 
the slaves, like those of St. Domingo, under a like 
policy of the French government, would respond to 
the lure held out, and rise in a mass to commence 
the work of murder and desolation. With the coun- 
tenance of the general government, it is impossible 
to say what would be the results of an insurrection 
of the slaves of the South. The dangers ai-e, at least, 



221 

sufficient to make it the duty of the South to guard 
against them. The lives of the citizens of the South, 
and all that is dear to them, depend on their pre- 
serving, wholly untouched, their jurisdiction over 
the slave question. The power that violates these 
rights, is their worst foe — and as such, must and will 
be met. 

The passage of such an enactment by Congress 
would be a virtual infraction of the compact between 
the general government and the States of Virginia 
and Maryland. It cannot be supposed, even by the 
most insane of the fanatics, that those States would 
have ceded their territory to the United States, if 
they had supposed that the national government pos- 
sessed the power to pass an act of abolition; or could 
ever so far forget its own character as to assume 
such power. Would they have exposed their own 
citizens to be thus robbed of their property? Would 
they — would Washington himself, have sanctioned 
a measure which would be certain to endanger the 
institutions of Virginia and Maryland, and found a 
city of refuge for the reception and shelter of the run- 
away slaves from those States? It cannot be, for one 
moment, believed. These States would be deeply 
injured by such a measure; and they, as well as the 
citizens of the District, would regard it as unauthor- 
ized, unjust, and oppressive. The general govern- 
ment would be petitioned by the whole District, to 
remove the seat of government, and recede the 
District to the States from which it was received. 
Amid such opposition and contention, surrounded 
by an indignant and injured population, the govern- 
ment would find itself placed, by its injustice, in a 
situation so embarrassing, that in all probability it 
would be constrained to remove the seat of its de- 
liberations to some remote and more tranquil spot. 

The government of the United States, in adopting 
19* 



222 

the District of Columbia as the site of the capital, 
never contemplated an interference with the exist- 
ing right of the inhabitants to their slaves. Had 
the measures now urged been anticipated, the seat 
of government would have been fixed in one of the 
non-slaveholding States, where the government 
would not have been disturbed by the agitation of 
this ill-fated question. It may be added, also, that 
the slave-holders in the administration, of which the 
sainted Washington — a slave-holder — was the chief, 
would never have sanctioned the measure, had they 
supposed that the question of slavery in the District 
was open to Northern interference. 

But whatever right may be claim.ed, for Congress, 
in the District of Columbia, it will be admitted that 
it has no greater power than a local legislature would 
have, were the District a State, and Congress its 
legislature. No republican, no lover of freedom, 
no friend of justice, will deny that it would be 
improper and oppressive, should Congress assume 
powers which such a legislature would not possess. 
It may, therefore, be presumed, that Congress will be 
guided by the rules which would control such a 
legislature; and will consult the interests, but more 
than all, the will of the community. If the voters 
of the District are anxious for the abolition of slavery, 
it is well. If, on the contrary, they are opposed to 
it — to trample on their will, would be but a humi- 
liating specimen of American liberty and justice. 
When the national government is convinced that the 
will of the community, for which she legislates, 
the community of which she is the protector, craves 
abolition, then let its inhabitants be robbed of their 
property, despoiled of their rights, and offered up 
as sacrifices at the shrine of Northern fanaticism. 

The surrender of the District of Columbia would 
prove one of the most afflicting calamities which 



223 

could be visited upon the South. It would become 
the focus of the abolitionists. They would make it 
their head-quarters — the laboratory for the prepara- 
tion of their incendiary weapons. From this place, 
they would operate, with irresistible eflect, upon the 
surrounding country; and in a short time completely 
pervade the south with their insurrectionary spirit. 
The district, too, would become the shelter of tens 
of thousands of fugitive slaves. Arrangements would 
be made to receive them, and forward them by sea 
to the North. Thus the District would become the 
avenue, by which the slaves of the south would pass 
on to freedom, at the North. 

The opposition to slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia has existed ever since its cession to the 
United States. As early as in 1S05, the following 
resolution was brought forward in the House of Re- 
presentatives. 

'' Ixesolvedy That from and after the 4t]i of July, all 
blacks and people of colour that shall be born with- 
in the District of Columbia, whose mothers shall be 
the property of any person residing within said 

District shall be free; the males at the age of , 

and the females at the age of ." 

This resolution was rejected; ayes 31, noes 77. 
The views of the South on this subject are dis- 
tinctly understood. The people of the slaveholding 
States deny the right of Congress to discuss the sub- 
ject; and are prepared to act, as one man, in vigorous 
and determined opposition to any measure, calculated 
to undermine their rights and endanger their tran- 
quillity and safety. In some of the meetings recently 
held at the South on this subject, the representatives 
of the South in Congress were requested, to vacate 
their seats the moment the discussion of abolition 
commenced. The following firm and eloquent ap- 
peal from the South to the North, published in the 



224 

Richmond Inquirer, and extensively recopied, will 
exhibit the feelings and determination of the South 
on this subject. 

" The South, therefore, calls upon the North to 
put forth her strength, and assist us in putting down 
the emissaries of the fanatics, and their poisonous 
presses — and, moreover, to keep off their hands 
from the District of Columbia. It is neutral ground, 
with which neither party is permitted to meddle. 
' Pass not the Iberus, (as the Romans warned the 
Carthagenians.) Touch not Saguntum.' We warn 
you in the most ingenuous but respectful terms, 
touch not the District — disturb not the order of 
things, which has been established there since the 
foundation of the government — violate none of the 
rights of property which belong to her people, ori- 
ginally the citizens of two slave States, and protected 
by their laws. Open no asylum in the slave region, 
and on the borders of Virginia, for fugitive slaves 
or incendiary emissaries. The federal constitution 
never could have intended to convey any jurisdic- 
tion to Congress over this delicate and agitating 
subject. Beware, then, we beseech you ! You are 
kindling a flame which must consume the sacred 
temple of the Union itself. The South has taken 
her stand on this subject, from which she will not 
depart. She will not permit the discussion for one 
moment of such petitions. She will consider the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia as 
forbidden ground in debate. Here they are on a 
footing as firm, and occupy a position as strong, as 
they do, when they reject interference, in an open 
manner, with the institution of slavery within their 
limits. They may with safety point to the constitu- 
tion, and demand whether agitation can be justified 
and upheld by the authority of Congress, and whe- 
ther it does not impair the securities to slave pro- 



225 

perty, which constitute a part of that instrument. 
They may not only allege the evil tendency of en- 
tertaining discussions and receiving petitions on this 
subject, but they may take higher grounds, and say, 
that should Congress, through a misguided majority, 
acting under fanatical impulses, make any declara- 
tion affecting the rights of slave-owners in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, either now or prospectively, it 
would be, in effect, a sentence of confiscation, bound- 
ed, it is true, as to place, but co-extensive with the 
limits of the Union." 

It cannot be denied, and need not be concealed, 
that the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia by Congress, would be the signal for an im- 
mediate dissolution of the Union. The South does 
not shrink from an avowal of her determination on 
this point. Her course will be adopted, not from 
resentment or rage, but from a calm and stern con- 
viction of necessity. On a separation of the Union, 
the District of Columbia would probably revert to 
its original States; and the very act of abolition 
would be thus abrogated. Thus the fanatics urge a 
measure, which, though it may dissolve the U^iion, 
cannot free a single slave. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Impossibility of effecting abolitiori, even under 
the sanction of the slave-holders, ivithout col- 
lision and war between the whites and blacks 
— Jimalgamation. 

We are willing, for the sake of investigating the 
practicability of abolition, to suppose impossibilities 
— to imagine that the Southern states are willing to 
witness, with apathy and indifference, the most sa- 
cred provisions of the Constitution violated, and 
their domestic institutions and domestic rights 
trampled, by their brethren, in the dust. We are 
willing to suppose, that they will voluntarily surren- 
der their chartered rights, quietly beggar them- 
selves and their children, and tamely give them- 
selves up to the management of the Northern 
fanatics: in short that the slave-holders will them- 
selves become abolitionists. Still it would be im- 
possible to effect abolition, without commotion 
and bloodshed, without the desolation of the 
entire South, and the extermination of one or the 
other of the races which inhabit it. 

Were the slaves emancipated they would claim 
political and social equality. This is already claim- 
ed by the abolitionists; and it is not to be supposed 
that a mass of ignorant freed men, drunken with 
the excitement of unwonted exemption from re- 
straint, would be more moderate in their views or 



227 

desires, than their pious and temperate advocates 
in the North. They would claim political and 
social equality. Would it be denied? If so, they 
would, in the exultation and boastfulness of newly 
acquired importance, demand it. Pleased with a 
pretext for collision, they would at once fall upon 
the whites, and wrest, or attempt to wrest, the poli- 
tical power of the Southern states from their hands, 
at the point of the sword. Whatever might be the 
final result — the immediate consequences would be 
a war of extermination. 

But let us suppose that these rights were conceded, 
and that the slave was at once elevated to all the privi- 
leges and powers of complete citizenship — the right 
to vote, to hold office, to make laws, organize 
armies, &c. &c. Can any man, in the maturity ot 
reason, uninfluenced by fanaticism, and disposed to 
look dispassionately at facts, suppose that the two 
races could exist together, in tranquillity under such 
circumstances? Can it be conceived that social 
amalgamation will, or can, take place? The reader 
has no doubt noted with apprehension and regret 
the proscriptive and bitter prejudices of parties as 
they now exist in this country. A population, 
united by every national tie, identical in language, 
character, interests and feelings, and knit together 
by all the bonds of kindred — are still so divided by 
the spirit of faction, that the tranquillity and even 
the existence of the Union have been at times en- 
dangered. If such excitements distract our present 
population, what must be expected when the South 
is possessed by two races, differing in colour, char- 
acter and interests? What power will overthrow 
the barrier which indissolubly divides them? What 
magic will remove the distinction which makes 
social amalgamation impossible? Without kindred 
connections, without social or sexual intercourse, 



228 

with every thing that can separate and embitter the 
races — it is impossible that they could move in the 
same sphere. It is impossible that they could sit 
in the same legislative hall, stand in the same mili- 
tary ranks, occupy the same civil posts, or mingle 
in the same political meetings. So long as inter- 
marriage is out of the question, so long must these 
prejudices — the necessary result of social separation 
— prevail. On one side will be the whites, on the 
other the blacks; on one side the intelligence and 
refinement of the country, on the other the igno- 
rance and barbarity; on one side the wealth, on the 
other the poverty; on one side contempt and the 
feeling produced by former power, on the other 
dark brooding feelings of malice and revenge. The 
blacks, too, would be unwilling to work, and when 
pressed by want — would yjrench the means of ex- 
istence from the white man, and in case of resist- 
ance, resort to the torch and the knife. The lands 
would remain in the possession of the whites, and 
being the only source of wealth, the impoverished 
negroes would insist on their division. A thousand 
subjects of contention would arise; and when the 
parties are indissolubly divided, separated by the 
hand of Nature, marked, on the front, as foes, and 
embittered by every feeling of hostility which can 
enter into human quarrels — the arbitrament must 
eventually be by the sword."* 

* The following extract from De Lamartine, contains im- 
pressive and pregnant truths, which should not be overlooked 
by the political philosopher. 

" The more I have travelled, the more I am convinced that 
races of men form the great secret of history and manners. 
Man is not so capable of education as philosophers imagine. 
The influence of governments and laws has less power, 
radically, than is supposed, over the manners and instincts 
of any people, while the primitive constitution and the blood 
of the race have always their influence, and manifest them- 



229 

The abolitionist will, perhaps, point to the North- 
ern states, as furnishing a proof of the safety of 
abolition. It is true, that the slaves have been eman- 
cipated in the North— it is also true that they have 
not destroyed the lives of our citizens. But the 
lacts prove nothing for the abolitionists. Notwith- 
standing the paucity of the numbers of the blacks, 
they have given the greatest trouble to the authori- 
ties of the Northern cities. Insignificant in power 
and resources, they are still insolent and arrogant to 
a degree which renders them dangerous to the com- 
munity. The officers of justice scarce venture to 
arrest them; and it is a task of great and mortal 
peril to take a fugitive slave, or a fugitive from jus- 
tice, from among them. It is unnecessary to refer 
the reader to the columns of our newspapers, which 
give, ahnost weekly, accounts of rescues by the 
blacks The very hall of the Court House in 
.niiladelphia, was made the scene of a rescue but a 
short time since; and the Judge himself saw, through 
the window, the officers of the court assailed and 
the prisoner seized by a negro mob. 

While referring to the free negroes of the North, 
it may be well to inquire whether the social and' 

selves, thousands of years afterwards, in the physical forma- 
tions and moral habits of a particular family or tribe. Hu- 
man nature flows in rivers and streams into the vast ocean of 
humanity; but its waters mingle but slowly, sometimes 
never; and it emerges again, like the Rhone from the Lake of 
Geneva, with its own taste and colour. Here is indeed an 
abyss of thought and meditation, and at the same time a 
grand secret for legislators. As long as they keep the spirit 
of the race in view they succeed ; but they fail when they 
strive against this natural predisposition : nature is stronger 
than they are. This sentiment is not that of the philosophers 
of the present time, but it is evident to the traveller; and 
there is more philosophy to be found in a caravan journey of 
a hundred leaguig ^than in ten years reading and meditation." 
20 



230 

moral improvement, promised by the abolitionists 
as the result of emancipation, has been there attain- 
ed. The negro in the North has equal, if not su- 
perior advantages to the mass of poor white men. 
Our public institutions afford him the advantages of 
an education; and the partiality of the negroites 
furnishes him with every advantage for the pro'se- 
cution of business. It cannot, however, be boasted, 
that his intellectual character has been materially 
elevated, or his moral nature greatly improved. The 
free blacks are, in the mass, the most ignorant, vo- 
luptuous, idle, vicious, impoverished, and degraded 
population of this country. They are seldom seen 
pursuing regular trades, and avoid all continuous 
labour with characteristic solicitude. They have 
sunk lower than the Southern slaves, and constitute 
but a melancholy proof of the advantages of aboli- 
tion. 

Some time since, a respectable Quaker of Phila- 
delphia, who was called upon to aid the abolition- 
ists, in reply to the request of the solicitor, asked 
him what he would think of a settler in the far 
West, who would cut the wood from a tract of 
land preparatory to cultivation. The abolitionist 
replied, that he would consider it a natural and pru- 
dent course. But suppose, urged the friend, instead 
of cultivating what he had cleared, he should pro- 
ceed to cut off another tract? — I would regard him 
as a most imprudent man — answered the other. 
And should he still proceed, cutting and clearing a 
tnird, a fourth, a fifth tract, without stopping to 
cultivate any? He would be a madman — responded 
the unconscious abolitionist. What then, urged the 
querist, are ye, who, having freed a large body of 
the blacks, would proceed to clear new and bound- 
less tracts, without cultivating those already cleared. 
Raise the negroes of the North ttf Vhe moral and 



231 

intellectual elevation necessary to make them good 
and happy men and valuable citizens— and I will 
give thee my money to clear a new tract. 

The condition of the free negroes of the North 
demonstrates the utter impossibility of effecting a 
social or political amalgamation of the races. They 
are free at the North— possessed of all the rights of 
the whites — and elevated, in many states, to a com- 
plete political equality. Do they exercise those 
rights.? They do not, and dare not. Weak as they 
are, the jealousy of the whites renders an attempt 
on their part to exercise their political rights, dan- 
gerous. Were they more numerous, the prejudice 
would be stronger. The late difficulties in the 
North between the whites and blacks, prove the 
strength and bitterness of this feeling. Those dif- 
ficulties arose from the presumption of the blacks; 
and were quelled by their flight and submission. 
Had the blacks nearly or quite equalled the whites 
in numbers and strength, it is probable that resist- 
ance would have been made. Such a conflict 
would have led to consequences which no power 
under heaven could have checked. The contest 
^yould have widened to embrace the entire popula- 
tion, and deepened into a civil war. That war 
would have been waged with all the horrors of a 
civil contest between hostile races; and would have 
been terminated only by the submission or extinc- 
tion of one of the parties. Imagine such a contest 
at the South, and what mind can regard the results 
without horror. 

A review of the history and condition of the free 
blacks of the North, cannot but result in the con- 
viction, that they are incapable of rising to a level 
with the whites; and that, if they could, their eleva- 
tion would only precipitate a conflict between them. 



232 

and the whites, and render that conflict more dubi- 
ous and destructive. 

It may be justly doubted, whether, under the 
most favourable auspices, the negro character is 
adequate to the task of self elevation and support, 
whether he can, when left to himself, win or retain 
the advantages of civilization and self control; and 
it is certain that, where the circumstances are ad- 
verse, he must sink, when the supporting hand of 
the white man is withdrawn, into barbarity and 
wretchedness. We know that many intelligent 
men profess to believe, that the intellectual and 
moral faculties of the negro are equal to those of 
any other race. We have no prejudice against the 
coloured man to gratify; but we cannot but doubt 
the truth of the position. We have no proof of 
their capacity for self-sustained civilization. Since 
the sun first shone upon Africa, that vast continent, 
has, so far as the negro race is concerned, remained 
in unbroken gloom. Of the flood of moral radiance 
which has irradiated the whole globe, not a strag- 
gling ray has been able to pierce the dense gloom 
vvhich overshadows Africa. In the West Indies, 
we find the same insusceptibility to mental refine- 
ment. Even in Hayti, as will be seen hereafter, 
the negro has been unable to raise his nature above 
its ordinary level. In this country, the coloured 
man has greater advantages, and has attained a 
somewhat greater degree of civilization: but who, 
that contemplates the race, as a mass, is prepared to 
say that they are capable of self government, or fit 
to be merged, politically, in the free white popula- 
tion of the country. Personal observation must 
convince every candid man, that the negro is con- 
stitutionally indolent, voluptuous, and prone to 
vice; that his mind is heavy, dull, and unambitious; 
and that the doom which has made the African in 



233 

all ages and countries, a slave — is the natural conse- 
quence of the inferiority of his character.* 

^ * The following extract is from the Courier and Enquirer, of 
New York. The view here taken of the subject is equally 
forcible and correct. 

" We will suppose, what is scarcely possible, that the 
blacks should finaUy succeed, and becooie masters where be- 
fore they were slaves. We would ask does there now exist, 
or did there ever exist an independent community of blacks 
in any ^ge or clime, that affords one single ennobling- reflec- 
tion to the friends of the human race ] Are they not in St. 
Domingo, and every where else, where they exist in a state 
of freedom, without morals, without industry, and divested 
of every characteristic of civilized nations 1 They have no 
ideas of freedom except exemption from labour, and their 
conception of political rights is limited to abject despotism 
on the one hand, unrestrained licentiousness;on the other. In 
their native land they are the slaves of their kings, wha 
exercise over them unlimited discretion, and in St. Domingo, 
where their minds, and their habits were in some degree 
modified by an association with the whites, the only use they 
have made of their freedom is to indulge in a latitude of 
idleness and debauchery which has entailed upon them a 
system of coercion and punishment from their rulers, far 
more severe than they ever suffered from their old masters. 

*' To the task of self government they have been found 
totally inadequate, at all times, and every where. As inde- 
pendent communities they are political bondmen ; as free in- 
dividuals, they nine times in ten, become either a burthen or 
a pest to society. The cities of New York and Philadelphia, 
the great refuges of the free coloured population, afford such 
melancholy examples of the truth of this latter assertion, that 
we shall not waste words to establis-h its correctness. No, 
one can walk the streets by day, and more especially by 
night, without having his feelings outraged by continued ex- 
amples of such disgusting obscenity, such filthy, nauseating^ 
beastly corruption, as it is reserved to the free negroes, alone 
to exhibit among us. They pay no more respect to the laws 
of the land, than to the decencies of society. A white man 
offending against the laws, can be arrested and made answer- 
able for his crime, without raising a mob. to effect bis. libera- 
tion and arrest the course of justice But let a Southern 
planter attempt to reclaim his runaway slave, and the whole 
20* 



234 

Mr. Walsh says, in his Appeal: '^ I know of but 
one mode of correcting these feelings, and prevent- 
ing altercation, hostility, and civil war; of making 
the experiment of general instruction and emanci- 
pation, with any degree of safety. We must assure 
the blacks of a perfect equality in all points with 
ourselves; we must labour to incorporate them 
with us, so that we shall become of one flesh and 
blood, and of one political family /" — Mr. Walsh 
is right; and events which have transpired since the 
publication of his work, prove that this " amalga- 
mation," is recognized as the only means of attain- 
ing complete social equality, and is therefore re- 
garded, by the abolitionists, with favour. Their 
feelings and views, on this point, were originally 
expressed with more frankness; but the indignation 
with which the plan was received by the people, 
has induced them to defer its public avowal and ad- 
vocacy. It must, however, be admitted by every 
reasoning man that sexual amalgamation is the only 
means, under heaven, by which the races can be 
" mingled, like kindred drops, in one.'^ This is the 
only plan by which the vagaries of the abolition- 
ists can, by the most remote possibility, be realized. 
It is the sole recourse, in case of emancipation, by 
which the colliding races can be harmonized, their 
prejudices removed, and the divided and conflicting 
population welded into one mass. 

But is such an amalgamation possible? The fana- 



mass of black population is in arms to oppose him. He does 
it at the risk of his life, and his appeal to the laws of his 
country to recover his property, endangers his very existence. 
Even if he should escape this dangrer, he incurs the scoffs 
and opprobiura of the offscourings of society, and too often 
must submit his claim to the decision of a magistrate whose 
conscience will not permit him to enforce the laws of his 
country. 



235 

tics, who pause not at the prospect of insurrection 
and slaughter, may, perhaps, regard without nausea, 
this process of harmonization. They may have 
sufficiently schooled and perverted their natural 
feelings, to endure a prospect at which ordinary 
human nature sickens. But can they, with all their 
abstractions, persuade the people of this country 
that white is black ? Can they induce them to be- 
lieve that Cupid is a young negro; or to regard, 
without a revolt of their feelings, the combination 
of charms which grace the sooty and fragrant 
favourites of the fanatics? But this subject can 
scarce be even referred to, without a breach of pro- 
priety, without feelings of nauseated disgust and 
excited indignation. The man who can insult the 
fair and accomplished ladies of this country ,^ by con- 
ceiving, much less avowing, a belief of the possi- 
bility of such deep, unnatural and damning degrada- 
tion — deserves the most emphatic expression of 
the abhorrence of society. Yet strange to say, the 
North docs contain men, who openly vindicate the 
revolting and guilty suggestion — and who yet walk 
our streets ^'untarred and unfeathered." 

Can these philanthropists blind themselves to the 
real character of such schemes? Can they not see 
beneath the mask of benevolence, the hot and hide- 
ous features of a monstrous and unnatural lust? Can 
they not foresee, in the results of the unholy union, 
the utter annihilation of all sense of virtue? Arc 
they not aware that it would plunge the race into a 
pit of fathomless and irretrievable degradation and 
perdition? They are not, they cannot be ignorant^ 
that such guilt would bring down upon us the curse 
of God and man; that we would be regarded, with 
loathing and contempt, by all created beings; and 
sink into a depth of crime and infamy, of feeble- 
ness and horror, for which fancy has no picture 



236 

and history no parallel. Commerce would fly our 
guilty shores; crime would stalk through our streets 
at mid-day; genius and virtue, and peace would be 
unknown among us; and we would become, to 
ourselves, a mass of rottenness and wretchedness — 
to the world, a hissing and a reproach. 

Mr. Walsh, referring to this subject, in the work 
already quoted, says: "there must remain, in any 
case, a broad line of demarcation, not viewed as an 
inconvenience by them, but indispensable for our 
feelings and interests. Nature and accident com- 
bine to make it impossible; their colour is a per- 
petual memento of their servile origin, and a double 
disgust is thus created. We will not, must not, 
expose ourselves to lose our identity as it were; to 
be stained in our blood, and disparaged, in our rela- 
tion of being, towards the stock of our forefathers 
in Europe. This may be called prejudice; but it 
is one which no reasoning can overcome, and which 
we cannot wish to see extinguished. We are sure 
that it would exist in an equal degree with any na- 
tion of Europe, who might be circumstanced like 
ourselves; we do not find it so gross in itself, or so 
hurtful and unjust in its operation, as those of an 
analogous cast which prevail in England. < Men of 
true speculation,' says Mr. Burke, * exploring gene- 
ral prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover 
the latent wisdom which inheres in them. If they 
find what they seek, they think it more wise to 
continue the prejudice, with the reason involved, 
than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and leave 
nothing but the naked reason.' " 



CHAPTER XX. 



Consequences of Abolition^ if effected with the 
assent of the Slave-holder. 

It will be said by the Southern reader, that it is 
unnecessary and idle to inquire into the conse- 
quences of an event which is impossible. We ad- 
mit that it is utterly impossible that the citizens of 
the South can ever consent to stake their lives upon 
the perilous and absurd scheme of the abolitionists: 
but it may be well, by a brief and cursory view of 
the results which would inevitably flow from such 
a measure, to open the eyes of honest abolitionists, 
if such there be, to the real character of the designs 
which they have been induced to sustain. 

The consequences of abolition would be wide- 
sweeping and general; they would be felt and de- 
plored by the North as well as the South — by the 
negro as well as the white man. 

To the North its influence would be truly disas- 
trous. The instant the act of emancipation went 
into eflect, a torrent of black emigration would set 
from the South to the North. The blow given to 
the South, and the convulsion which would pervade 
its whole extent, would derange all the pursuits of 
industry, and drive the negroes to the North for 
subsistence. They would seek the free States also 
as the land of promise, and the North would soon 
be blackened by the ingress of Southern slaves. One 
of the first results of this emigration would be a 



238 

depreciation in the price of labour. The added 
number of labourers would, of itself, occasion this 
fall of prices; but the limited wants ol the negro, 
which enable him to under-work the white labourer, 
would tend still further to produce this result. The 
honest white poor of the North would, therefore, be 
either thrown out of employment entirely by the 
blacks, or forced to descend to an equality with the 
negro, and work at his reduced prices. It behooves 
the working men of the North to look into this sub- 
ject, and take efficient measures to ward off the fatal 
blow aimed at their rights and interests by the 
abolitionists. Let the mad scheme of abolition be 
carried into effect, and the honest poor of the North 
will be degraded into a state Ahorse than that from 
which the slaves will be freed. The chains will be 
taken from the blacks of the South, and fastened 
upon the poor whites of the North. Degradation, 
suffering, and oppression will be their lot, thence- 
forth, for ever; and for the wretchedness thus entailed 
upon them, they may thank the benevolence of the 
fanatics. 

The North already deplores, not without reason, 
the number of the free coloured population within her 
borders. The immense increase of that population, 
by abolition, would render the burthen thus inflicted 
upon the community, intolerable. With the increase 
of their strength, they would become more insolent 
and overbearing. Their idleness would render them 
dependent upon the industrious whites; their vices 
would urge them into crime; and our community 
would be filled with confusion, violence, and out- 
rage. Our jails and alms-houses would overflow with 
the lazaroni thus crowded upon us; and the North 
would be afflicted with all the evils of a worthless 
coloured population — evils hitherto confined to the 



^39 

South, but which abolition would spread over the 
whole country. 

It cannot be supposed that this population, igno- 
rant, insolent, and violent, would abstain from the 
exercise of the political rights extended to them by- 
most of the Northern States. They would enter the 
arena with their united strength; and the whites 
would either be driven from the polls, or compelle'd 
to maintain their rights, by force. Bitter party con- 
flicts between the blacks and whites, could not be 
prosecuted without violence; and among the other 
direful triumphs of abolition, our peaceful streets 
would be filled with the din of mortal conflict, and 
our cities exposed to the lust and rage of infuriated 
and savage negro mobs. 

Let the North pause ere she consent to see her 
peace thus invaded, her safety endangered, and her 
happiness for ever destroyed. We are now an united, 
tranquil, and happy people; and every consideration 
of prudence and duty requires that we should not 
sufier, much less seek, the triumph of a measure 
which must involve us in the evils which it would 
inflict upon the South, and render the free and happy 
States of the North the scene of an eternal contest 
between the original white population and a black 
emigration, ignorant, savage, vicious, and idle. The 
hour that sees the slaves of the South emancipated, 
witnesses the prosperity and glory of the North 
clouded for ever. 

If the scheme of emancipation should prove, as 
we are assured it must, ruinous in its influence on 
the industry and agriculture of the South, the blow 
would be still more severely felt at the North. If 
emancipation is attended here as in St. Domingo, 
with the destruction of the plantations, and the con- 
sequent failure to supply the usual exports, what 
will become of Northern commerce or manufactures? 



240 

Where will our vessels find employment? Whence 
will our manufactories procure their cotton, or wh^re 
find their market? Without exports — and the mass 
of ours is raised fit the South — the country must sink 
into irremediable penury. The blow will not be for 
a month, or a year, but for ever. It will fall upon 
the land, like palsy upon the limbs of age — nothing 
will turn its feebleness into strength, or restore the 
living principle which before animated it. 

Of the consequences of abolition to the South it is 
difficult to speak in terms of moderation. The ex- 
tent of those consequences cannot now be conceived; 
but we know enough, to give to the mad scheme of 
emancipation an aspect of unequalled horror. 

One of the first consequences of emancipation 
would be the loss of the negro's labour. Indolent 
from constitution, the moment he is allowed the 
privilege of abstaining from toil, no persuasion, no 
inducement, not even the stern voice of necessity, 
can bring him back to it. In St. Domingo, the blacks 
are forced to toil by the most oppressive enact- 
ments, and labour literally at the point of the bayo- 
net. The negro is the same every where, and, re- 
leased from legal obligation, he would abandon all 
toil, and trust to chance for the necessaries of life. 
The plantations of the South would become, in con- 
sequence, unproductive. The wilderness would re- 
claim them; and the rich fields which now teem 
with fertility would, like the plantations of Hayti, 
revert to the forest. The pursuit of agriculture thus 
abandoned, the South must sink into poverty. The 
rich exports, now sent from that section of the Union, 
would no longer go forth, to bring back a return of 
wealth and comfort to the enterprizing planter. Pe- 
nury and wretchedness would fall upon and blight 
the land. Its spirit would be broken down; indus- 
try and enterprise would be discouraged; capitalists 



241 

would emigrate with their wealth; and, with the 
general decay, even the proud political spirit of the 
South would be bowed to the dust. Abolition, if 
unloosed upon the South, will pass over it like a 
curse. He who visits it after its pestilential influ- 
ence has been fully exeried, will find that prosperous 
portion of our happy country — a desert — still, lone, 
and melancholy. 

The following remarks, upon the consequences 
of emancipation, were made by Judge Tucker, in 
1803, long before the country was afflicted with an 
organized band of conspiring abolitionists. "The 
acrimony of the censures cast upon us must abate, 
at least in the breasts of the candid, when they con- 
sider the difficulties attendant upon any plan for the 
abolition of shivery, in a country where so large a 
proportion of the inhabitants are slaves; and where 
a still larger proportion of the cultivators of the 
earth are of that description. The extirpation of 
slavery from the United States is a task equally 
momentous and arduous. Human prudence forbids 
that we should precipitately engage in a work of 
such hazard, as a general and simultaneous emanci- 
pation. The mind of man is, in some measure, to 
be formed for his future condition. The early im- 
pressions of obedience and submission, which slaves 
have received among us, and the no less habitual 
arrogance and assumption of superiority among the 
whites, contribute equally to unfit the former for 
freedom, and the latter for equality. To expel them 
all at once from the United States, would, in fact, 
be to devote them only to a lingering death, by 
famine, by disease, and other accumulated miseries. 
To retain them among us, would be nothing more 
than to throw so many of the human race upon the 
earth without the means of subsistence; they would 
soon become idle, profligate, and miserable. They 
21 



242 

would be unfit for their new condition, and unwil- 
ling to return to their former laborious course." 

That it would be impossible to induce the eman- 
cipated negroes to work, and that the consequence 
would be the impoverishment and ruin of the en- 
tire South, we have the most conclusive evidence. 
Wherever the experiment has been tried it has failed. 
We will prove, in the next chapter, by a brief re- 
view of the history of St. Domingo, that emancipa- 
tion has been there attended with every disaster 
which the most timid could have feared. The in- 
dustry of that island has been annihilated. Brougham 
in his Colonial Policy, says, " The free negroes in 
the West Indies are, with very few exceptions, 
chiefly in the Spanish and Portuguese settlements, 
equally averse to all sorts of labour which do not 
contribute to their immediate and most urgent wants. 
Improvident and careless of the future, they are not 
actuated by that principle which inclines more civil- 
ized men to equalize their exertions at all times, and 
to work after the necessaries of the day have been 
procured, in order to make up for the possible defi- 
ciencies of to-morrow; nor has their intercourse with 
the whites taught them to consider any gratification 
as worth obtaining, which cannot be produced by 
slight exertion of desultory and capricious indus- 
try." It appears that the same aversion to labour 
prevails in all the colonies. The author just quoted, 
says, that " M. Malouet, who bore a special com- 
mission from the general government to examine the 
character and habits of the Maroons in Dutch Guiana, 
and to determine whether or not they were adapted 
to become hired labourers, informs us that they will 
only work one day in the week, which they find 
abundantly sufficient, in the fertile soil and genial 
climate of the new world, to supply all the wants 
they have yet learnt to feel. The rest of their time 



243 

is spent in absolute indolence and sloth. ^Le repos^ 
says he, ^ et Poisivete sont devemis dans leur etat 
social leur tmiqiie passion?^ He gives the very- 
same description of the negroes in the French colo- 
nies, although many of them possessed lands and 
slaves. The spectacle, he tells us, was never yet 
exhibited of a free negro supporting his family by 
the culture of his little property. All other authors 
agree in giving the same description of free negroes 
in the British, French, and Dutch colonies, by what- 
ever denomination they may be distinguished, whe- 
ther Maroons, Caraibes, free blacks, or fugitive 
slaves. The Abbe Raynald, with all his ridiculous 
fondness for savages, cannot, in the present instance, 
so far twist the facts, according to his ftmcies and 
feelings, as to give a favourable portrait of this de- 
graded race." The British colony at Sierra Leone, 
and our own at Liberia, both demonstrate the in- 
vincible aversion of the negro to regular labour. 
Indeed, wherever the experiment has been tried, it 
has produced the same result; and those who advo- 
cate the liberation of the slave must calculate upon 
the consequences to them and to the country, of a 
population of two millions and a quarter remaining 
in a state of complete sloth and idleness. 

To add to the burthens and afflictions of the 
South, the emancipated population would acquire, 
with fearful rapidity, those vices from which their 
present restraint protects them. Drunkenness would 
sweep over the South like a destroying spirit; and 
every vice and every crime would follow in its 
track. Even if such a population could be held in 
subjection to the laws, how wasting and destructive 
a burthen would it prove? 

But the most fearful consequence to be anticipated 
from emancipation, is the violence and insurrections 
of the manumitted slaves. That this violence would 



244 

be inevitable, cannot, we think, be doubted. Many 
causes would combine to render the vast population, 
thus suddenly freed from wonted restraint, fierce, 
unquiet, and insurrectionary. Idleness itself would 
prompt them to a war upon the whites, if for the 
mere enjoyment of excitement. The want that suc- 
ceeds idleness would urge still more fiercely to hos- 
tilities. The vices that would flow in upon them, 
drunkenness, sensuality, and impatience of restraint, 
would also act as spurs to goad them on to deeds of 
violence and blood. Their conscious degradation 
could not fail to add to their discontent. To gain 
t'ne mere means of subsistence, the blacks would be 
forced to work for their former masters; these mas- 
ters, freed from the sense of duty and dependence 
which now softens their hearts towards the slave, 
would probably exhibit a degree of rapacity and 
cruelty now unknown. All these causes, with 
many others, would conspire to render the South 
the scene of constant violence and bloodshed. It is 
probable, however, that instead of multiplied and 
continued ebullitions of the dark passions of the 
negro, they would, in the confidence of their num- 
bers, essay to make a general blow, and take posses- 
sion of the whole Southern portion of our country. 
JNIany captivating inducements would urge them to 
this course. The gratification of their ungoverned 
passions, their lust, their love of blood, and their 
hatred of the whites, would combine with the de- 
sire to secure the wealth of the citizens, possess their 
cities, seize their plantations, and prosecute those 
pursuits which, in the hands of the whites, have been 
attended with such great success and profit. 

The following extract from a speech by the cele- 
brated Mr. Canning, beautifully illustrates the dan- 
gers of negro emancipation. " In dealing with a 
negro, we must remember that we are dealing with 



245 

a being possessing the form and strength of a man, 
but the intellect only of a child. To turn him loose 
in the manhood of his physical passions, but in the 
infancy of his uninstructed reason, would be to raise 
up a creature resembling the splendid fiction of a 
recent romance, the hero of which constructs a 
human form with all the physical capabilities of man, 
and with the thews and sinews of a giant; but, being 
unable to impart to the work of his hands a percep- 
tion of right and wrong, he finds, too late, that he has 
only created a more than mortal power of doing 
mischief, and himself recoils from the monster which 
he has made." 

Professor Dew thus speaks of the consequence of 
emancipation. "The great evil of these schemes 
of emancipation, remains yet to be tokl. They 
are admirably calculated to excite plots, murders, 
and insurrections; whether gradual or rapid in their 
operations, this is the inevitable tendency. In the 
former case, you disturb the quiet and contentment of 
the slave who is leftunemancipated,and he becomes 
the midnight murderer to gain that fatal freedom 
whose blessing-s he does not comprehend. In the 
latter case, want and invidious distinction win- 
prompt to revenge. Two totally different races, as 
we have before seen, cannot easily harmonize to- 
gether; and although we have no idea that any or- 
ganized plan of insurrection or rebellion can ever 
secure for the black the superiority, even when free, 
yet his idleness will produce want and worthless- 
ness, and his very worthlessness and degradation 
will stimulate him to deeds of rapine and vengeance; 
he will oftener engage in plots and massacres, and 
thereby draw down on his devoted head the ven- 
geance of the provoked whites^ But one limited 
massacre is recorded in Virginia history; let her 
liberate her slaves^ and every year you would hear 
21* 



246 

of insurrections and plots, and every day would 
perhaps record a murder;, the melancholy tale of 
Southampton would not alone blacken the page of 
our history, and make the tender mother shed the 
tear of horror over her babe as she clasped it to her 
bosom; others of a deeper dye would thicken upon 
us; those regions where the brightness of polished 
life has dawned and brightened into full day, would 
relapse into darkness thick and full of horrors." 

The consequences of servile insurrection in the 
South cannot be adequately portrayed. From the 
revolt of the gladiators under Spartacus, 70 B. C, 
to the insurrection in Barbadoes in 1816, the same 
scene of horror has attended every servile contest. 
The madness which a sudden freedom from restraint 
begets — the overpowering burst of long-buried pas- 
sion — the wild frenzy of revenge, and the savage 
lust for blood, all unite to give to the warfare of 
liberated slaves, traits of cruelty and crime which 
nothing earthly can equal. Fiends let loose upon 
the earth could not wage a more desolating war 
upon its inhabitants. The torrent of blood once 
let loose, it sweeps the old and young, the innocent 
and guilty, the hoary sire and the blooming maid, 
in one undistinguished mass before it. Should such 
a contest take place in this country, if the negro tri- 
umphed, the South would be lelt a blackened and 
solitary waste. It is not, however, probable that 
brutal force would succeed, in a contest against skill, 
prudence, and science. The blacks would probably 
be subdued, and, as their cruelties would excite 
against them the bitterest hatred, perhaps extermi- 
nated. But, before this result could take place, the 
blacks would, in all human probability, obtain pos- 
session of extensive portions of the country, and 
extend their ravages to the desolation of large tracts 
of territory, and the murder of tens or hundreds of 



247 

thousands of innocent victims. There can be no 
exaggeration of the horrors which would ensue 
wherever they attained power. The most savage 
of the Indian tribes— the very cannibals— ex cd 
them in mildness and humanity. Their career is 
one of unmixed desolation. They would burn every 
mansion— they would destroy every vestige of in- 
dustry and its triumphs — fire and sword would sweep 
over the land, and leave behind them no traces of 
life—nothing but a black and blasted heath. The 
inhabitants would be slaughtered with every cruelty 
which ingenious malice could devise. The father 
or the husband would be reserved to witness the 
violation of the daughter or the wife; and helpless 
females would be spared to glut the sav.nge and 
brutal passions of their demoniac captors, amid the 
palpitating bodies of murdered kindred, and the 
shrieks of those reserved for peculiar and lingering 
torture. Better that a blast from Heaven, like that 
which fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah, should burst 
upon the South, and destroy it utterly and for ever, 
than that it should be transformed into -^ panderno- 
niitm, where these human fiends may hold their in- 
fernal orgies, their Saturnalia of lust and blood. Such 
are the triumphs of abolition. Two millions and 
a half of negroes, hardy, robust, ferocious, igno- 
rant and brutal, let loose upon our brethren of the 
South — chartered to rob, burn, violate, and murder — 
to sweep the fair South like a pestilence — and leave 
it an added monument of the horrors of fonaticism. 
History has no page which can afford a picture so 
fearful, so revolting, so full of dread. True we have 
examples of negro revolt — of the midniglU confla- 
gration, and the noon-tide massacre — scenes of lust, 
cruelty, and horror, over which the arch fiend him- 
self might sicken; but they were contracted in ex- 
tent, and temporary in duration. Ours may spread 



248 

over a continent, and destroy a people — and that 
people our brethren! 

Yet the authors of these evils affect to be moved 
by considerations of philanthropy! What a guilty 
mockery is it to apply such a word to their schemes 
of rapine and bloodshed. Philanthropy! Do they 
consider it philanthropic to sound the war blast 
through a land before peaceful and happy? Does 
their philanthropy teach them to haunt the pillow 
of the fair and spotless females of the South, with 
dreams and images of dread and horror? Is it phi- 
lanthropic, to excite the negro of the South to insur- 
rection; to set one portion of our country against 
another, and fill the bosom.s of our people with 
stormy passions or excited fears? Philanthropy, 
as heretofore understood, seeks the happiness of the 
race. It is the shadow of the Prz/?ce o/"Pf^/re. Its 
form is mild and benignant — its agents are persua- 
sive and gentle: hope precedes, and rejoicing fol- 
lows in its path. It has nought to do with the 
stormy and the terrific: its task is not to sound the 
war drum, nor to preside over midnight conclaves of 
treason and insurrection. The philanthropy of the 
abolitionists is a Moloch, with a brow spotted with 
blood, and hands crimsoneil in slaughter. It leads 
on the slave to the murder of the whites; and pre- 
sides over the scene, where the cot of our southern 
brethren blazes to the skies, wdiile the murdered 
forms of its manly inm.ates mingle with its ashes, 
and the female loveliness they perished in protect- 
ing is consigned to a doom worse than the grave. 
Such is tlie spirit they let loose — and upon whom? 
Upon our own brethren — those knit to us by the 
closest and holiest ties. — those who, in the hour of 
o-ur danger, have always opened their breasts, and 
bared their arms, m our defenee — ^the refined, the 



249 

chivalrous, the patriotic, and devoted Americans of 
the South!* 

But the consequences of emancipation to the 
slave himself, should not be overlooked. They are 
now tranquil and contented; they are well fed, well 
clothed; debarred from those indulgences so dan- 
gerous to the negro, and secured in tlie enjoyment of 
all that is really valuable to him. V/hen emanci- 
pated, he loses the friend that sustained him in 
youth and age, in sickness and distress. He is 
without land, without money, without experience, 
or intelligence, but more than all, without habits of 
self restraint. Thus sibiated, he must sink to the 
lowest wretchedness. Idleness, poverty, drunken- 
ness, vice, suffering, and discontent Will ensue. 
^^ You may manumit a slave," says an able writer, 
"but you cannot make him a white man. He still 
remains a negro or mulatto. The mark and recol- 
lection of his origin, and former state, still adhere 
to him; the feelings produced by that condition, in 
his own mind and the minds of the whites, still 
exist. The authority of the master being removed, 
and its place not being supplied by moral restraints, 
or incitement, he lives in idleness, and probably in 
vice, and obtains a precarious support, by begging 

* "Should the poor blacks of the South be instig-ated to 
another insurrection by the agency of the abolitionists at the 
North, and a servile war ensue — followed, as it might be to 
extermination, and as it would be, by all the untold and un- 
ulteral)le miseries of such a contest, whose skirts will be 
stained with the blood that would flow? Upon whom might 
the widow charge the agony she was doomed to t^utfer] At 
whose doors would lie the guilt of ravished innocence] To 
whom would the orphan have occasion to point as the mur- 
derer of his parents'? 'i'hese are solemn considerations, which 
some of our very neighbours may yet be called upon solemnly 
to answer — perhaps at a more awful bar than any upon earth!" 
—N. Y. Com. Mv, 



250 

or theft. If he should avoid these extremes, and 
follow some regular course of industry, still the 
habits of thoughtless improvidence which he con- 
tracted while a slave himself, or has caught from the 
slaves, among whom he is forced to live, who, of 
necessity, are his companions and associates, pre- 
vent him from making any permanent provision for 
his support, by prudent foresight and economy; and 
in case of sickness, or bodily disability from any other 
cause, send him to live as a pauper, at the expense 
of the community." This description is intended 
for the emancipated slave under our present institu- 
tions: the emancipation of more than two millions 
would, of course, greatly heighten the evils men- 
tioned by Mr. Harper, and add others still more 
formidable. 

The consequences of the emancipation of slaves, 
when unfit for freedom, have uniformly been cala- 
mitous to those emancipated. The following in- 
stances we derive from Dew's work on this subject. 

" We have already said, in the course of this re- 
view, that if we were to liberate the slaves, we 
could not, in fact, alter their condition — they would 
still be virtually slaves; talent, habit and wealth, 
would make the white the master still, and the eman- 
cipation would only have the tendency to deprive 
him of those sympathies and kind feelings for the 
black, which now characterize him. Liberty has 
been the heaviest curse to the slave, when given too 
soon; we have already spoken of the eagerness and 
joy, with which tlie negroes of Mr. Steele, of Bar- 
badoes, returned to a state of slavery. The East 
of Europe affords hundreds of similar instances. 
In 1791, Stanislaus Augustus, preparing a hopeless 
resistance to the threatened attack of Russia, in 
concert with the states, gave to Poland a constitu- 
tion which established the complete personal free- 



251 

dom of the peasantry. The boon has never been 
recalled, and what was the consequence? Finding, 
says Jones, in his volume on Rents, their depen- 
dence on their proprietors for subsistence remained 
undiminished, the peasants showed no very grateful 
sense of the boon bestowed on them; they feared 
they should now be deprived of all claim upon their 
proprietors for assistance, when calamity or infir- 
mity overtook them. It is only since they have 
discovered that the connection between them and 
the owners of the estates, on which they reside, is 
little altered in practice, and that their old mas- 
ters, very generally, continue, from expediency or 
humanity, the occasional aid they formerly lent 
them, that they have become reconciled to their 
new character of freemen. "The Polish boors are, 
therefore, in fact still slaves, ^^ says Bennet, in his 
view of the Present State of Poland, " and rela- 
tively to their political existence, absolutely subject 
to the will of their lords as in all the barbarism of 
the feudal times. 

" In Livonia, likewise, the serfs were prematurely 
liberated; and mark the consequence. Van Halen, 
who travelled through Livonia, in 1819, observes, 
*' along the high road tlirough Livonia, are found, 
at short distances, filthy public houses, called in the 
country Rhalcharuas, before the doors of which 
are usually seen, a multitude of wretched carts and 
sledges, belonging to the peasants, who are so ad- 
dicted to brandy and strong liquors, that they spend 
whole hours in those places. Nothing proves so 
much the state of barbarism, in which these men 
are sunk, as the manner in which they received the 
decree issued about this time. These savages, un- 
willing to depend upon their own exertions for 
support, made all the resistance in their power 



252 

to that decree, the execution of which was, at 
length, entrusted to an armed forced 

The following picture of Guatemala, extracted 
from " Dunn's Sketches of Guatemala, in 1827 — 
28," will exhibit the effects of emancipation in that 
place. " With a Lazaroni in rags and filth, a colour- 
ed population drunken and revengeful, her fe- 
males licentious, and her males shameless, she ranks 
as a true child of that accursed city which still re- 
mains as a living monument of the fulfilment of pro- 
phecy, and the forbearance of God, the hole of every 
foul spirit, the cage of every unclean and hateful 
bird. The pure and simple sweets of domestic life, 
with its thousand tendernesses, and its gentle affec- 
tions, are here exchanged for the feverish joys of a 
dissipated hour; and the peaceable home of love is 
converted into a theatre of mutual accusations and 
recriminations. This leads to violent excesses; men 
carry a large knife in a belt; women, one fastened 
in the garter. Not a day passes without murder. 
On fast days, and on Sundays, the average number 
killed is from four to five. From the number ad- 
mitted into the hospital of St. Juan Dios, it appears 
that in the year 1827, near fifteen hundred were 
stabbed; of whom, from three to four hundred died. 
Nor is the freed African one degree raised in the 
scale — under fewer restraints, his vices display 
themselves more disgasti?igly; insolent and proud, 
indolent and a liar, he imitates only the vices of 
his superiors; and, to the catalogue of his former 
crimes, adds drunkenness and theft." 

But the wretchedness which results from destitu- 
tion and vice, would not be the only evil that would 
wait upon the emancipated slave. Collision with 
his master ivould take place. Under the circum- 
stances, we conceive it to be inevitable. Can the 



253 

abolitionist suppose, for one moment, that the re- 
sults of such a conflict would be favourable to the 
slave? A philosophical writer has justly observed, 
that " power can never be dislodged from the hands 
of the intelligent, the wealthy, and the courageous, 
by any plans that can be formed by the poor, the 
ignorant, and the habitually subservient; history 
scarce furnishes such an example." The slaves might 
ravage the South, and murder hecatombs of vic- 
tims — but they would be at length subdued. And 
would their situation be improved? Would their 
masters feel more kindly to them after such a con- 
test? Would their privileges be extended, or their 
condition improved? Would their cruelties plead in 
their favour? Would the remembrance of violated 
purity, and slaughtered feebleness stir up the gentle 
affections of the slaveholder; and, standing upon 
his blackened hearth-stone, would his breast flow 
out in kindness to the demons who had effected the 
ruin? A war with the whites must produce horrors 
unutterable. The whites would suffer terribly — but 
awful would be their retribution; and if the negroes 
survived the contest, it would be to curse the trai- 
tors whcr fomented the quarrel. 



22 



CHAPTER XXI. 



^S*^. Domingo before the revolution — Insurrection 
originated in the policy of France— ^Amis des 
Noirs — Agitation of the Colony by the French 
— Domestic Dissensions — Oge — Insurrection 
— French Commissioners proclaim abolition 
of Slavery — Massacres — Cruelty of revolted 
Slaves — Touissant — Le Clerc lands — Evacu- 
ates the Island — Dessalines — Massacres — 
Christophe — Petion — Boyer — Present state of 
Hayti— Governmen t — Population — Character 
of Inhabitants — Agriculture — Commerce — 
Free Labour — Finances — Army, <^c. 

In the present chapter, we will be enabled only to 
present the prominent features of the history of the 
revolution of Hayti, and its consequences as deve- 
loped in the present condition of that island. It is 
to be regretted, that our citizens are not generally 
more familiar with that history. It abounds in 
truths highly important in the present political state 
of this country; and would do much, if understood, 
to dissipate the disastrous and malign influence of 
the abolitionists. 

^^ The question," said Mr. Canning, when arguing 
this subject in the English parliament, " to be de- 
cided is, how civil rights, moral improvement, and 
general happiness are to be communicated to this 
overpowering multitude of slaves, with safety to the 
lives, and security to the interests of the white po 



255 

pulation, our fellow subjects, and fellow citizens. 
Is it possible that there can be a difference of opin- 
ion on this question? Is it possible that those most 
nearly concerned, and those who contemplate the 
great subject with the eye of the philosopher and the 
moralist, should look at it in any other than one 
point of view?" — Let the question alluded to by the 
great statesman be decided by a reference to the 
example of St. Domingo. 

At the commencement of the French revolution, 
the island of St. Domingo was in the highest state 
of prosperity. Its inhabitants were tranquil and 
contented; its soil was cultivated with the greatest 
skill and assiduity. The sugar cane, the cofiee tree, 
and other articles of tropical culture, were produced 
in abundance. ^' In the year 1791," says St. Mery, 
a writer of great credit, " there were in the French 
division alone, 793 sugar estates, 789 cotton planta- 
tions, 3117 of coffee, 3150 of indigo, 54 cocoa manu- 
factories, and 623 smaller settlements. There were 
also 40,000 horses, 50,000 mules, and 250,000 cattle 
and sheep; and the quantity of land actually in cul- 
tivation was about 2,289,480 acres." Mr. Edwards 
and others state the amount of exports as follows: 
163,400,000 pounds of sugar; 68,150,000 pounds of 
coffee; 6,286,000 pounds of cotton; 930,000poundsof 
indigo; 29,000 hogsheads of molasses, &c. Walton 
says, that the amount of exports was about six mil- 
lions and ninety-four thousand, two hundred and 
thirty pounds, English money. The population was, 
at the same time, 40,000 whites, 28,000 free per- 
sons of colour, and about 455,000 slaves; and the 
valuation of the plantations in culture was about 
seventy millions sterling. This, it must be remem- 
bered, does not comprise the Spanish division — one 
third of the whole island. 

The insurrection in St. Domingo did not com- 



256 



mence with the blacks. They were tranquil and 
happy, until the madmen of the mother country, 
ignorant and fanatical, excited them to discontent 
and rebellion. Franklin, in his "Present State of 
Hayti/' says—" It has been erroneously thought by 
some persons, who feel interested in the fate of the 
slave population of the West Indies, or, at all events, 
they have, with no little industry, propagated the 
impression, that the revolution in Hayti began with 
the revolt of the blacks, when it is evident, from 
the very best authois, and from the testimony of 
people now living, who were present during its 
opening scenes, that such was not the fact; and that 
the slaves remained perfectly tranquil for two years 
after the celebrated Declaration of Rights was pro- 
mulgated in France.'- This is an important fact, 
and should not be lost sight of. 

The first cause of the Havtien revolution was the 
organization of an abolition Society in France, called 
" Anns des Noirs"— Friends of the Blacks. This 
society, with one of like character in London, by a 
systeuiatic and vigorous course of agitation on the 
subject of slavery, succeeded in enlisting the French 
government in the support of their views, and of 
exciting the people of St. Domingo, particularly 
the mulattoes, to discontent. So strong was the 
excitement in France against the colonial planters 
that, says a writer on this subject, ^Uheir total anni- 
hilation was threatened." The resemblance between 
this menace and those of the anti-slavery men in 
this country will be recognised. We hope that the 
results will not bear an equal resemblance. 

In 1 789, a deputation of the coloured people of St. 
Domingo waited upon the French National Assem- 
bly, to crave a recognition of their alleged rights 
Ihe assembly gave them a favourable answer; and 
some of the members individually expressed their 



257 

determination to advocate the emancipation of the 
slaves. 

The free mulattoes in the colony were the first to 
catch the spirit of insurrection thus fomented by the 
French. They claimed a participation in the go- 
vernment, revolted, and, though subdued, were still 
encouraged by the French. 

The commotions caused by the policy of the 
French government having endangered the colony 
to the crown, the National Assembly in 1790 disa- 
vowed the intention of altering the domestic insti- 
tutions of the island. * 

The colony, however, continued in a disturbed 
state. The whites were divided; the mulattoes, a 
free and powerful body of people, were urgent in 
asserting their claims; and the administration and 
legislature were at open war. So high did these 
dissensions rise, that the governor dissolved the As- 
sembly; the members of which sailed to France, to 
appeal to the king and National Assembly. 

Oge, a mulatto, educated in France, and filled by 
the French fanatics with insurrectionary principles 
and feelings, about this time arrived in St. Domingo. 
He raised the banner of insurrection, and was joined 
by a number of coloured people, but was defeated, 
taken, and executed. Oge, it is said, was encouraged 
by the English abolitionists. 

The slaves, during all these commotions, re- 
mained quiet, neither dreaming of, nor desiring^ 
a change of their condition. 

The members of the Assembly were, on their 
arrival at France, arrested; the government of the 
colony was sustained in its policy; and troops were 
sent to St. Domingo, to protect the governor in his 
insidious efforts in favour of the coloured popula- 
tion. The news of the execution of Oge also ex- 
cited great indignation in the French legislature, 
22* 



258 

Robespierre, the great champion of abolition, said — 
" Perish the colonies, rather than sacrifice one iota 
of our principles." The policy thus recommended 
was pursued, and the colony did perish. The French 
legislature at once raised the mulattoes, or people of 
colour, to the full privileges of French citizens, being 
allowed all the rights of the whites. This law was 
passed in May, 1791. 

This decree was received, by the colonies, with 
such violence and resentment, that the governor 
was constrained to promise that it should not go 
into operation. The mulattoes, however, flew to 
arms, and insisted upon its recognition. " Here," 
says Franklin, *' it will be perceived the first serious 
symptoms of tumult and insubordination appeared, 
not from any revolt of the slave population, but 
from the unhappy interference of the National As- 
sembly of France, influenced by the supporters and 
advocates of the people of colour, and the society 
^fimis des Noirs.'' 

He proceeds to state, that, had this interference 
been declined, St. Domingo would have remained 
tranquil, the negro cultivators would have been hap- 
pier than they have been rendered, and oceans of 
human blood would have been spared. 

The same statement is made by other writers, and 
is so completely borne out by the historical facts, 
that we believe no attempt has been made to con- 
tradict it. The important lesson involved in the 
statement, should not be lost upon this country. 

The first act of open rebellion took place, on the 
Cape, in August, 1791. The slaves murdered the 
whites and burned all the improvements. The 
slaves of the neighbouring plantations joined them; 
and the whole South was threatened with ruin. 
"The barbarity/' says Franklin, "which marked 
their progress exceeds description;: an indiscrimi- 



259 

nate slaughter of the whites ensued, except in in- 
stances where some of the females were reserved 
for a more wretched doom, being made to submit 
to the brutal lusts, of the most sanguinary wretches 
that ever disgraced humanity. Cases are upon 
record, where the most amiable of the female sex 
were first brought forth to see their parents inhu- 
manly butchered, and were afterwards compelled 
to submit to the embraces of the very villain who 
acted as their executioner. The distinctions of age 
had no effect on these ruthless savages: for even 
girls of twelve and fourteen years, were made the 
objects of satiating their lust and revenge. No- 
thing could exceed the consternation of the white 
people; and the lamentations of the unhappy women 
struck every one with horror. Such a scene of 
massacre has scarcely been heard of, as that which 
accompanied the commencement of the revolution 
in the South." 

Some of the mulattoes joined the blacks; and 
with their united force, gained several advantages 
over the troops sent against them and extended 
their ravages over the country. 

^^The defeat of tlie whites,'^ says Franklin, "was 
followed by a scene of cruelties and butcheries 
which exceeds imagination; almost every individual 
who fell into the hands of the i-cvolters, met with a 
wretched end, tortures of the most shocking de- 
scription being resorted to by these blood-thirsty 
savages." 

It is deserving of remark, and should be remem- 
bered, that a number of Frenchmen encouraged and 
assisted these revolts;, and Mackenzie, in his notes 
on Hayti, says, " The priests are accused of hav- 
ing sanctioned the murderous pi^oceedings of the 
negro chiefs, and several were executed.''^ So 
fiendlike is the temper of fanaticism. 



260 

The danger of the whites induced them to enter 
into a treaty with the coloured people, called the 
concordat, by which they agreed to unite for 
mutual defence against the negroes. By the con- 
cordat, the national decree elevating the coloured 
people to the rights of citizens, was recognized. 
But scarcely was this union effected, before it was 
blasted, by the arrival of another decree from 
France, abrogating the former one, and restoring 
the coloured population to their former state of in- 
feriority. The confusion created by this inconsis- 
tency, was still further heightened, by the subse- 
quent arrival of still another decree, re-establishing 
the first and re-elevating the coloured people to an 
equality with the whites. Thus were all hopes of 
union and effectual defence overthrown, by the im- 
prudence and ignorance of the abolitionists of the 
mother country. 

The ravages of the slaves, meanwhile, continued. 
The loss of the whites was extensive, but not equal 
to that of the slaves. It is estimated, that 10,000 
slaves perished, by the sword and by famine, in 
the first revolt in the South. In their encounters 
with the whites, they exhibited no courage; and 
when successful, it was wholly to be ascribed to their 
immense superiority of numbers. Cowardly, igno- 
rant, and unprovided with military resources, they 
were cut down by thousands, and might have been 
readily suppressed, had not the policy of the Na- 
tional Government divided and distracted the free 
inhabitants of the colony. 

The anti-slavery men of France, instead of being 
taught wisdom by the awful consequences of their 
imprudences, succeeded in passing, on the 4th of 
April, a decree directly contemplating complete 
emancipation, elevating the free negroes and colour- 
ed people to complete equality with the whites, and 



261 

directing, that 8,000 of the national guards be sent 
out to enforce the decree. This fatal decree was 
forcibly opposed by the colonists; and the French 
Commissioners, sent over to enforce it, finding 
themselves unable to subdue their opponents, '^ call- 
ed in the aid of the revolted slaves, offering them 
their freedom, and promising that the city of the 
Cape should be given up for plunder." Thus we 
perceive the foreign abolitionists joining the slaves, 
and aiding them in the perpetration of the atroci- 
ties which desolated the island. " Men, women, and 
children," says Franklin, " were, without distinc- 
tion, unmercifully slaughtered by these barbarians; 
and those who had escaped the first rush into the 
city, and had reached the water side, for the pur- 
pose of getting on board the ships in the harbour, 
were intercepted and their retreat cut off by these 
merciless wretches, just at the moment when ar- 
rangements had been accomplished for their em- 
barkation. Here the mulattoes had an opportunity 
of gratifying their revenge; here they had arrived 
at the summit of their greatest ambition and glory; 
here it was that these cowardly and infamous parri- 
cides, gorged with human blood, sacrificed their 
own parents, and afterwards subjected their bodies 
to every species of insult and indignity; here it was 
that these disciples of Robespierre — this injured and 
oppressed race — the theme of Gregoire's praise, and 
the subject of his appeal and harangue, showed 
themselves worthy disciples of such masters! If 
any thing were wanting to establish the fact of 
these scenes being unexampled, and without a pa- 
rallel, one thing, I am sure, will alone be sufficient, 
and that is, that the commissioners, those amiable 
representatives of the national assembly, the im- 
maculate Santhonax, and the equally humane 
and virtuous Polverel, those vicegerents of the 



26-2 

society of Amis des Noirs, those protectors of the 
mulattoes, were struck with horror at the scene 
which was presented to them, and repaired to the 
ships, there to become spectators of the effects of 
their own crimes, and of a splendid and opulent 
city devoured by the flames which had been lighted 
by the torch of anarchy and rebellion."* 

* When the revolters first entered the city, every man, 
woman, and child, were bayoneted or cut down with such 
instruments as they could muster; but the young females 
were, in most cases, spared for the momentary gratification of 
the lust of those into whose hands they fell; one case of the 
most singular enormity took place: — the leader of the revolt- 
ed slaves, named Gautier, had entered the house of a re- 
spectable merchant in the square, in which were the proprie- 
tor, his wife, his two sons and three daughters. The sons 
were young, not exceeding the age of ten, but the daughters 
were elegant young women, the eldest about eighteen, and 
the youngest not exceeding fourteen. Gautier, assisted by 
one or two wretches, equally inhuman, promised to spare the 
family, on account of his having received many acts of kind- 
ness from the father, to wnom he was often sent by his mas- 
ter on business, he being a domestic slave. These poor 
creatures, who were at first half expiring from, the terror of 
the scene around them, and from the idea of being the cap- 
tives of barbarians, recovered somewhat from the alarm into 
which they had been thrown, through the promises of secu- 
rity, thus unconditionally pledged to them ; and although 
not permitted to go out of the sight of their captors, they 
did not apprehend that any mischief was in embryo, and 
that their lives were to be sacrificed. Impressed with 
the idea of safety, they proceeded to prepare a repast for 
their supposed guardians, and set it before them in the same 
splendour, as they were wont to do, when receiving their 
best and dearest friends. Gautier drank freely, and hi's com- 
peers did no little justice to the rich repast. Night coming 
on, and apprehensive of the consequences of a surprise from 
the enemy's force, they began to deliberate upon what plan 
they should adopt to secure their unhappy captives from 
flight, when, not being able to devise any thing likely to be 
effectual, they came to the savage resolution of murdering 
them all. The daughters were locked up in a room, under 



263 

Many of the planters having applied to England 
for aid, the commissioners from France, to enable 
themselves to raise a force sufficient to defend the 
island from any attempts by the English troops, 
'^ proclaimed the abolition of every species of 
slavery, declari7ig that the negroes were thence- 
forth to he considered as free citizens^ ^ — and 
thereby, says Franklin, " assigned over, to a lawless 
banditti, the fee-simple of every property in the 
French part of the island of St. Domingo, placing 
every white inhabitant within almost the grasp of a 
set of people insensible to every feeling of humani- 
ty, rude and ruthless as in their native wilds.'^ 
The consequences were such as might have been 
expected. A charter was given to crime. Blood 
flowed in torrents; lust and violation were made 
things of custom; and the population lost almost the 
traits which distinguish humanity from the brute. 
Franklin, in concluding his account of this sangui- 
nary commencement of the revolution, reiterates 
that " the cause of those disturbances did not pro- 
ceed from the oppression and the tyranny practised 

the watch of two of the revolters, whilst the remainder of 
them commenced the bloody task by bayoneting the two 
sons. The mother, on her knees, imploring mercy with 
pitiful cries, met with the same fate; whilst the husband, 
who was bound hand and foot, was barbarously mangled by 
having, first his arms, and then his legs cut off, and after- 
wards run through the body. During this blood-thirsty 
scene, the daughters, ignorant of the tragic end of their 
parents, were in a state of alarm and terror not to be describ- 
ed, yet hoping that their lives were safe. But, alas ! how 
deceitful that hope! for their destiny was fixed and their 
time but short. Gautier and his diabolical associates, went 
into their room, stripped them naked, and committed on their 
defenceless persons the most brutal enormities, when, with 
the dead bodies of their parents, they were thrown into the 
flames, which were then surrounding them, where they all 
perished. — Franklin. 



264 

over the slaves, but from the measures of the na- 
tional assembly, the colonial assemblies, and by that 
specious and intriguing body, the Society of Amis 
des Noirs, (the Anti-Slavery Society of France,) 
and the coloured people then residing in France, 
who had been tainted with the pernicious doctrines 
then prevailing in that country." 

Immediately after the abolition of slavery, by the 
representatives of the French Government, the 
slaves rose simultaneously in the difierent parishes, 
formed into bodies, took possession of the moun- 
tains, and secured themselves in the fastnesses of 
the island. They then sallied forth, spreading de ^^ 
lation around them, burning and destroying n\\Q 
plantations, demolishing every description of habi- 
tation, and murdering every white inhabitant that 
fell into their power. In one part of the colony 
the insurgents amounted to more than 100,000 men, 
without any leader who had the least command 
over them. In the North, their force, at first 25,000, 
soon increased to 40.000, of the most desperate and 
sanguinary character. 

On the 19th of September, 1793, an English 
force landed in the island and occupied the posts of 
Jeremie and Nicholas Mole. The act of abolition 
having removed all cause of war between the 
French Government and the blacks, the French 
soldiers and the natives united to oppose the Eng- 
lish. It is unnecessary to recite the details of this 
destructive and sanguinary war. It continued for 
five years, with various success, and was terminated 
in 1798, by the evacuation of the island by the 
British. 

At the period of the evacuation of the island by 
the British, Gen. Hidouville, agent of the French 
Directory, elevated two negro chieftians, Touissant 
and Rigaud, to the rank of Generals in Chief. This 



265 

created a motive of contention not to be resisted. 
The slaughter was recommenced by the rival chiefs; 
and a war of extermination carried on until 1800, 
when Rigaud was expelled from the island, and 
Touissant left in supreme power. 

Touissant did his utmost to raise the island from 
the depths into which it had fallen. He was ac- 
quainted with the negro character, and ruled with 
a rod of iron. No despotism could have been more 
inimitable in its power. He encouraged the plan- 
ters to return to their estates, and issued, in 1800, 
an edict, requiring the people, who had abandoned 
ail regular labour, to return to their agricultural 
pursuits. The regulation of labour was the same 
as those of the slaves in the English West Indies, 
both in the extent and intensity of the labour. The 
system was severe, but successful. <^ If degradation 
accompanied labour," says the historian, " the cul- 
tivators under Touissant were the most abject peo- 
ple in existence, for they were driven to it under 
the strong arm of military power, and for any of- 
fence which they committed they were liable to be 
brought before a military tribunal. There were no 
civil authorities by which the indolent or refractory 
cultivator was to be tried for his offences; there was 
no distinction between the vagrant, who was de- 
tected in idleness, and the soldier who fled from 
his post, they were both answerable to the military, 
power, were sentenced by court martial, and award- 
ed an equal punishment." The regulations of the 
despotic Touissant, though they inflicted upon the 
negroes a bondage and servitude, more oppressive 
than the sway of their former masters, proved wise 
and salutary, and did much to improve the state of 
the country, and the condition of the people. 

In 1802, the French Government determined to 
restore the island to its former condition, as a colo- 
23 



266 

ny of France, to re-establish slavery, and reinstate 
the planters in their original properties. To effect 
this, an expedition of 25,000 men, under General 
Le Clerc, landed in the island. They succeeded, after 
a protracted struggle, in getting possession of Touis- 
sant, who was sent to France. The war was however 
renewed under Christophe and Dessalines, the lead- 
ers of the negroes, and was prosecuted with the 
most sanguinary fury. After a struggle of unex- 
ampled ferocity, the French were, in November, 
1803, forced to evacuate the island. The loss of the 
French army in this war is estimated at 62,000. 
The loss of the negroes, in battle and by famine, 
must have been much greater. 

On the first of January, 1804, Hayti was declared 
independent. Dessalines, who had been invested 
with the chief command, on the departure of the 
French, permitted those who wished it, to leave the 
island, but in the most solemn manner, promised 
protection and security, to those who preferred re- 
maining. The inhabitants availed themselves of 
this offer of clemency, and remained. But scarcely 
were they in the power of this monster, before he 
invited, by a general call, the people to revenge 
their wrongs, and execute vengeance on the whites. 
" The white French people, therefore," says Frank- 
lin, " were indiscriminately sacrificed. No age nor 
sex was spared; the brutal soldiers, led on by their 
merciless officers, ran from door to door, and left 
not one alive whom they could find within; the 
females, whose amiable softness might have stayed 
the hand of the savage in his native wilds, first 
endured the most dreadful violation, and then were 
bayoneted and most shockingly mangled.'^ 

This massacre of an entire population, was suc- 
ceeded by an act of crafty ferocity, which history 
cannot parallel. " He gave out by proclamation, 



267 

that, as he intended to stay his vengeance for the 
sufferings to which his brethren had been exposed, 
all those who had escaped execution under his mili- 
tary decree, should appear at an appointed spot, for 
the purpose of receiving tickets, which might in 
future protect them from the vengeance of the 
people; and many who had been fortunate enough 
to escape, as they thought, in the first massacre, be- 
came the victims of the second; for no sooner did 
these unsuspecting and deluded creatures obtain 
what they conceived an assurance, that their lives 
would be spared, than leaving their hiding places, 
they ran with eagerness, to the place announced for 
issuing the tickets, when they were immediately 
seized and led away for instant execution." 

On the 8th of October, Dessalines was crowned 
emperor of Hayti. The emperor was scarcely 
seated on his throne, before he endeavoured to re- 
vive the African slave-trade. His object was to 
procure labourers, which were required for the cul- 
tivation of the lands. He entered into a negotia- 
tion with the English; and offered to give an ex- 
clusive grant for the prosecution of the trade, but 
was unable to induce them to embark in it. 

The code of Touissant was revived, to cause the 
inhabitants to labour. Of this Frjinklin remarks, 
" Whatever may be said about the freedom of the 
cultivators, by the advocates of free labour, I must 
be permitted to say, that no instance has yet been 
adduced of such freedom in practice, and that the 
code of Touissant, which was acted upon by his 
successor, exhibits greater proof of the existence of 
coercion than any thing I have seen." 

Dessalines was murdered on the 17th of October, 
1806, and Christophe succeeded him. Christophe 
however, found a competitor in Petion; and a war 
ensued. The former obtained and kept the com- 



268 

mand of the Northern part of the island, and Petion 
retained the control of the South. 

An incident, which occurred in the commence- 
ment of Christophe's reign, affords a good example 
to the abolitionists of the North, and proves that 
even the barbarous negro chieftain had a better sense 
of the rights of others than the philanthropic zealots 
who interfere with the institutions of our southern 
states. Discovering that some individuals in the 
island were intriguing to excite insurrection in the 
island of Jamaica, he had them arrested, and brought 
to punishment, for violating the rights of an inde- 
pendent and stranger community. 

The reign of Christophe was severe, tyrannical, 
and despotic, while the government of Petion was 
relaxed and mild. The former was successful and 
efficient; the latter feeble and unfortunate. The 
former coerced his subjects — for his subjects were 
his slaves — to labour, and agriculture and commerce 
partially revived; the latter endeavoured by gentle 
measures to induce his people to toil, and soon saw 
his government bankrupt, and his people vicious, 
idle, and impoverished. 

In 1818 Petion died, and was succeeded by Boyer. 
Christophe also died in 1820; and the whole island 
was then consolidated under the government of 
Boyer. From that period to the present the history 
of Hayti presents no event worthy of mention in 
this brief review. 

We will now take a cursory view of the condition 
and government of Hayti, to ascertain whether an 
experiment, which cost seas of blood, has resulted in 
an amelioration of the condition of the people. 

The government is called a republic. The presi- 
dent holds his office for life, and appoints his suc- 
cessor; he appoints all functionaries; proposes all 
laws, except those connected with taxation; can issue 



\ 269 

proclamations in conformity with the laws, and com- 
pel obedience. ^' In short," says Mackenzie, " the 
whole power of the state is centred in the chief, ex- 
cept in points which may be easily nullified.'^ 
Ihe President, in truth, is despotic. 

The population of the island previous to the revo- 
lution was estimated at 643,000. The population in 
1802 was estimated by Humboldt at 375,000. Such 
were the ravages of the revolution. The population 
m 1826 appears to have been 423,042. The increase 
ot population is estimated at sixty-one hundredths 
per cent, which is very little more than one half the 
increase in densely peopled countries. The people 
of Hayti are universally described as idle, improvi- 
dent, licentious, and immoral. Mackenzie, the Bri- 
tish consul, in his report to government says,—" No 
measures of the government can induce the youn<r 
Creoles to labour, or depart from their habitual licen^ 
tiousness and vagrancy." " The few young females 
that live on plantations seldom assist in any labour 
whatever, but live in a constant state of idleness and 
debauchery. This is tolerated by the soldiery and 
military police, whose licentiousness is gratified by 
this means." "Marriage, formally solemnized, is 
not so common as unions of another kind; and it is 
not uncommon for one man to be the protector of 
many women." 

<*In the interior," says Franklin, "the people 
are in the lowest state of moral degradation— every 
thing shows it— their habits and manner of living. 
In secluded places they congregate and follow all the 
propensities of nature; and indulge in all the vices 
of lust and sensuality, without limits, and without 
control. It is not possible, I think, for any one to 
visit their habitations without returning from them 
with the conviction that their present state is much 
below anything that can be imagined to have existed 
23* 



270 

in the worst state of society in any part of the world. 
In the new republics of South America, in which 
society is very backward also, the prevailing habits 
present some appearance of improvement; but in 
the country districts of Hayti there are no demon- 
strations of advancement from that deplorable igno- 
rance in which they seem to have existed from the 
period of the revolution; no change in their loose 
and dissolute manners and customs, but a fixed and 
determined perseverance in all the primitive vices 
of the African race." 

The catholic is the established religion of the 
country. It is stated, however, that a large portion 
of the inhabitants differ but little in their religion 
from their African ancestors. ** Three fourths of 
them," says Franklin, <' are as rank idolaters as 
their forefathers were in Africa." The clergy con- 
sists in all of thirty -eight pastors, for the whole 
republic. 

In relation to the agriculture of Hayti, Mr. Mac- 
kenzie has collected much valuable and authentic 
information. The rulers, who have at different times 
swayed that unhappy country since the revolution, 
established different codes regulating the labour of 
the people. All these codes discarded the notion 
of free labour, and coerced the people to toil. The 
most severe of these codes proved the wisest and 
most salutary in its results. Under Touissant " the 
whip was abolished; but thick sticks, the stems of 
creeping plants, called in Hayti ' lianes,' were used 
without scruple; and, not unfrequently, the sabre, 
the musket, and even burying alive, were resorted 
to as punishments for refractory gangs, or ateliers." 
The same punishments were used under Dessalines. 
The code rural, which now regulates the labour of 
the people, is thus described by Mackenzie: "Many 
of the regulations correspond with some contained 



271 

in the code noir and the subsequent laws of Chris- 
tophe; but the consequences of delinquency are 
heavy fine and imprisonment, and the provisions of 
the law are as despotic as can well be conceived." 

The following table of the exports from 1789 to 
1826, will exhibit the ruinous consequences of the 
revolution. A comparison of the present amount 
raised, with the amount raised before the revolution, 
will show the comparative advantages of slave and 
free negro labour. 







OOO o 


m 










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O 




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a 




rH«5t-OOt--rt<^SS 


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^ 


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t— 1 I— r— 1 


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QOOl— ir-HOJOJOJOJOJOiOJ 
t-OOXXQOXXGCXXOD 






o 



273 

"The general results of this table,'' observes Mr. 
Mackenzie, from whose valuable work we extract 
It, <^ appear fully to justify the conclusion of the 
decline of systematic industry, and of the advance 
of whatever, though chiefly done by nature, may be 
finished at uncertain periods by man." 

Every traveller in Hayti describes its present as- 
pect, as melancholy in the extreme. That opulent 
island has been allowed, by the slothful inhabitants, 
to revert almost to a state of nature. The buildings 
are destroyed; the mills overthrown; the fertile val- 
leys overgrown; and the whole country, with few 
exceptions, left to run waste. We have not space 
for extracts to sustain this assertion, but refer the 
reader to "Mackenzie's Notes on Hayti," and 
'' Franklin's Present State of Hayti." 

" It is indisputable," says the author of the latter 
work, ^^that the declaration of freedom to the slave 
population in Hayti was the ruin of the country, and 
that it has not been attended with those benefits 
which the sanguine philanthropists of Europe an- 
ticipated. The inhabitants have neither advanced 
in moral improvement, nor are their civil rights 
more respected; their condition is not changed for 
the better. They are not slaves, it is true, but they 
are suffering under greater deprivations than can 
well be imagined, whilst slaves have nothing to ap- 
prehend, for they are clothed, fed, and receive every 
medical aid in time of sickness. The free labourer 
in Hayti, from innate indolence, and from his state 
of ignorance, obtains barely enough for his subsist- 
ence. He cares not for clothing, and, as to aid under 
sickness, he cannot obtain it; thus he is left to follow 
a course that sinks him to a level with the brute 
creation; and the reasoning faculties of the one are 
almost inferior to the instinct of the other," 



274 

The commerce of Hayti has sunk with its agri- 
culture. It appears to be still unchecked in its down- 
ward career; and from the activity and permanence 
of the causes of its depression, the general decay of 
the country, the policy of the government, and the 
character of the people, there is little room to hope 
for an improvement. 

The finances of the country appear to be in the 
worst possible state. In 1827, the state of the finances 
was represented as follows: — 

Annual expenditure ^3,101,115 

Interest on loan 450,000 

Total expenditure ^3,551,115 

This sum of three and a half millions of dollars, 
was to be provided for out of two millions and a 
half, the estimated revenue of 1825, or of one mil- 
lion and a half, the estimate for 1826. How the 
financial necromancy of Hayti effected the miracle, 
we are unable to explain. 

The regular paid military of Hayti is about 30,000 
men, in addition to the militia of the island. The 
object of maintaining this large force is, no doubt, 
to awe the people into submission to the despot who 
bears the republican title of " president." Hayti 
has no navy. 

Such have been the consequences of abolition to 
Hayti. The mad fanatics of Paris forced the slaves 
into insurrection — and after scenes of inconceivable 
and diabolical atrocity — after hundreds of thousands 
of victims have perished — after a war of thirty-one 
years — what does she exhibit to the world? A 
despotic, military government; a people debased to 
the lowest depths of moral degradation, and forced 



275 



to labour at the point of the sword — a country de- 
solate, and almost savage; its agriculture abandoned; 
its commerce annihilated — bowed down with debt 
and yet without resources. Is there anything in the 
spectacle to encourage the wild hopes or mad designs 
of the abolitionist? 



CHAPTER XXII. 

We have referred, in a former chapter, to the con- 
sequences of abolition, even if the slave-holders sanc- 
tioned the scheme; and have shown that, with every 
obstacle and opposition removed, the emancipation 
of the southern slaves cannot be effected without the 
most desolating consequences. But we all know, that 
the opposition thus gratuitously evaded, will not be 
withdrawn, and cannot be avoided; and it becomes 
proper that we should consider the subject with that 
difficulty involved. 

That the South is opposed to abolition, no one will 
deny. She is opposed to it from principle, feeling, 
and interest; and will not only maintain her institu- 
tions at every hazard, but regard as her enemies, all 
who openly or insidiously assail them. 

It must not be supposed, that it can be assailed by 
the North, only through their authorities, by their 
legislatures, or by Congress. Against such opposition 
the South would interpose the shield of her sove- 
reignty, and laugh the malice of her foes to scorn. The 
more dangerous, the more practicable mode of oppo- 
sition, is the one chosen by the Abolitionists — indi- 
vidual agitation. For this, wealth alone is re- 
quired; and that can be furnished to any amount by 
the Abolitionists themselves, or by their English 
allies and coadjutors. They do not need numbers, 
influence, or power; the press and the pulpit are en- 
gines of agitation, by which, without real respecta- 
bility, they can efiect incalculable mischief. They 



277 

can thus render the tranquillity, the very existence of 
the slave-holders insecure; they can excite strong 
and general prejudices at the North, and hot and 
angry resentments at the South. Can any man be 
ignorant of the inevitable consequences? 

Mankind are strongly prone to blind themselves 
to approaching ills. We are seldom willing to cloud 
the enjoyment of the present, with fears for the fu- 
ture; and often would, like the Romans in their de- 
generacy, rather perish by our fire sides, and in the 
midst of our festivities, than meet the enemy at the 
borders, and defeat the threatened evil, before accu- 
mulated conquests render it irresistible. It was frpm 
this strange and slothful pusillanimity, that the Per- 
sian continued his riot when the Greek was within 
his borders; that the Parisians revelled when the 
allies were thundering at their gates; and that the 
Americans now affect a security they do not feel, and 
shrink from the realization of the perils that surround 
and menace them, from the distracting and treason- 
able activity of the Abolitionists. The miners are 
at work beneath the temple of union. We know it: 
we know what the consequences must be; yet they 
continue at their labours unmolested, unchecked. 
Let it not be said that they have been rebuked, put 
down by public opinion. Our cities have, it is true, 
been shaken by mobs, and the quiet of our people 
disturbed. This is what the Aholitionists seek. 
But are their steam-presses stopped? are their huge 
and various engines of agitation chained or checked? 
Is the mischief restrained? or are they, on the con- 
trary, more active and more dangerous than before? 
If the people of the North wish them put down — if 
they would save the Union — let them, through their 
legislatures, denounce and punish the treason and 
the traitors. 

The consequences of continued agitation are appa- 
24 



S78 

rent. It will produce, nay it has already produced, 
dangerous party excitement. It has given, to the po- 
litical discussions of the country, an aspect of menace 
and asperity, which they never before assumed. In 
the North, it has excited riots and disorders in all the 
principal cities; and in the South kindled in the 
minds of the people the hottest indignation. The 
whole land is heaving with excitement. The laws 
have been suspended, and revolutionary remedies 
adopted in many sections of the country, both north 
and south. Blood has already flowed; and should 
the agitation be continued, the excitement thus kin- 
dled, will leap over every barrier, and overturn every 
obstacle in its progress. 

Are the patriots of the North willing to witness 
these consequences? Are they willing to see the po- 
pular rage which, in the North, manifested itself in 
burning the houses of the negroes, and even destroy- 
ing their lives, heightened to its utmost pitch? It 
need not be supposed, that the South will find no 
champions in the North. The earthquake, when it 
does burst, will prove nearly as desolating here as in 
the slave-holding states. The lower classes of our 
people would be found prepared to sacrifice their 
lives for the Union; and once excited, where will 
their indignation pause? Let the friends of the co- 
loured man in the North think of this. Let the friends 
of peace and order ponder on it; for a war betv/een 
the two races could not be confined to the South, and 
once commenced, would probably be prosecuted 
with all the horrible cruelty which marked the revo- 
lution in Hayti. 

But must we think only of ourselves, in weighing 
the consequences of emancipation? Shall we bestow 
no thought on our brethren and sisters of the South? 
Must the most horrible species of warfare desolate 
that portion of our common country? Must the brave 



279 



and the fair, the helpless and the innocent, our own 
Kindred too, be offered up to glut the lust and re- 
venge of the brutal negro— and we be indifferent 
spectators of the scene? The consequences of agi- 
tation at the South are not merely the rage of the 
slave-holder— not merely the terror and wretched- 
ness of the shrinking females thus exposed to the 
most awful perils— but inevitable insurrection. It 
IS impossible that the South can be inundated with 
incendiary publications, and preserve her tranquil- 
lity. Already one extensive scheme of insurrec- 
tion, thus fomented, has been discovered and pros- 
trated. It is not in reason to suppose, that the same 
exertions, continued and extended, will not produce, 
still further, the same results. There is but one re- 
medy—and that remedy, if forced to it, the South 
will assuredly adopt. 

It is impossible that this Union can survive the 
period when it has ceased to be an advantage to those 
embraced in it. When the South is constrained to 
regard her northern sisters with distrust and terror, 
no earthly power can long prevent her from sunder- 
ing the bond which unites us. The Union must be 
a fraternal and kindly one; and when perverted into 
a source of animosity and danger, it will lose its 
power. If the South were a separate nation, she 
could not only guard her territory from the machi- 
nations of the abolitionists, but she could demand 
those who endangered her peace for punishment. If 
then our federal conjunction is made the engine of 
an agitation which endangers the life of every man, 
woman, and child, in the slave-holding states; if her 
worst foes stand behind the pillars of the Union to 
stab the South to the heart; if, in short, it becomes 
the source of the most awful perils and evils to the 
people of that section of our country — can we doubt 
the eventual result? The people of the South are 



280 

men, with the ordinary passions of the race — and 
dare we calculate on a forbearance which we know 
that we never would, never could, exercise under 
like circumstances — a forbearance which would be 
not merely weak but unwise? 

It would be vain and criminal, on such a subject, 
to deceive ourselves or others. Of abolition, or even 
of a continued and extensive attempt to effect it, the 
necessary and inevitable consequence Tnust be a dis- 
solution of the Union. The people of the South 
are protected from northern interference by strict 
constitutional, as well as national, right. As lovers 
of freedom, they would resist to the uttermost, and 
with propriety, any efibrt, made even for laudable 
purposes, to stretch the hand of northern interfe- 
rence over the prostrate barriers of the constitution, 
and modify the domestic institutions of the different 
states. But when this interference has for its avowed 
object measures so destructive and abhorrent — when 
it would overthrow the organization of society, and 
render the social system a convulsed, jarring, dark, 
and bloody chaos — it would be madness to calculate 
on their quiescence. Their determination to sepa- 
rate from the Union, if the Union continues to be a 
source of imminent and deadly peril to them, has 
not been left to remote innuendo or misty menace. 
It has been avowed, at all times and places, and in 
the most solemn and emphatic manner, by the peo- 
ple of the South. By the people of the South, we 
say ; for on this subject there are no parties. Every 
southron heart cherishes the same stern and inflexi- 
ble resolution to brook, from no power under hea- 
ven, an interference that gives the throats of his 
children to the knife, and offers up his taintless and 
cherished ones to the lust of the negro. The South, 
on this point, is as one man — its attitude is one of 
self-defence— its voice one of warning. If the wron^- 



281 

be continued, it will act, it must act, not in revenge, 
not in anger, but in the performance of a holy duty 
— in defending its firesides from nmrder — its valleys 
from desolation. That the South ivill not submit, 
is now beyond all question — that it ought not, we 
ask no further proof than the unbid promptings of 
every correct bosom. Would we, under like cir- 
cumstances, see a foreign and unconstitutional inter- 
ference wrench away the restraints which check the 
brutality of our slaves; offer up our sons to their 
ferocity, our daughters to their lust — and see our 
streams crimsoned with the hue of murder, and our 
valleys startled with the shriek of violation? The 
question is answered by the thrill of horror which 
must shake every bosom at the bare thought of a 
consummation so fearful and revolting. The sub- 
ject is then narrowed to this point — which is to be 
preferred, the preservation of the Union — a union 
necessary to our national independence and national 
glory — a union cemented by the blood, and hallowed 
by the glory of our fathers — or the prosecution of 
an unauthorized, chimerical, and most perilous 
scheme of interference with the domestic concerns 
of our sister states? 

It is a source of pain and humiliation to the pa- 
triot, that any circumstances should render it neces- 
sary or proper to calculate the advantages of the 
Union, or the consequences of its dissolution and 
downfall. The time, however, has arrived, when 
such an examination is necessary — when the atten- 
tion of the people of our country should be directed 
to the unbounded, the incalculable, blessings derived 
from our happy union, and the equally illimitable 
calamities which must flow from its destruction. 

In the confederacy the non-slave-holding states 
have the preponderancy of power. They are there- 
fore in the national councils the legislators of the 
25* 



285J 

Union. If there be a perversion of power — if there 
be oppression, mal-government, and consequent dis- 
content and division — it must come from them. 

The same states have, in every other particular, 
such advantages as will always protect them from 
wrong. They can, by their votes and power, shield 
themselves from danger or injury. If they are 
wronged, they are able legally to right themselves. 
They will never, in any civil contest, be the injured 
party, while they continue, as they ever must, to 
possess a preponderancy in the Union. Disunion 
will never take place unless occasioned by oppres- 
sion. The South cannot oppress the North, because 
it is the feebler brother. If the Union be divided, 
it will be sundered by the wrongs of the powerful 
done to the weak, either through the national coun- 
cils, or by the acts of individual citizens of the 
stronger slates. 

It will be well, therefore, to consider the conse- 
quences of disunion to the northern states. 

If the union of these states should be severed, 
they can never be re-united. They will become at 
once rivals and foes. When jealousy or aversion 
divides those knit together by the nearest and 
holiest ties — that division is eternal. No time, no 
change can modify the hatred that springs from it. 
Family quarrels, with nations as well as individuals, 
are the bitterest; and all history proves that neigh- 
bouring communities, identical in origin and lan- 
guage, but clashing in feelings and interest, cherish 
an animosity, which no lapse of time, or alteration 
of circumstances, can extinguish or allay. Should 
the North and South be divided, the prejudice, which 
even identity of interests and government has not 
suppressed, would burst forth with inextinguishable 
force and intensity. 

Such a separation would be immediately follow- 



283 

ed by a cessation of all intercourse. The protection 
of the South, from the incendiary efforts of the 
abolitionists, would require the adoption of this 
policy; and mutual animosity would confirm and 
perpetuate it. Treaties would be made with foreign 
nations. The carrying trade of the South would 
be done by the British, and British manufactures 
would be admitted, to the exclusion of those of the 
North. 

The consequences would be most ruinous to the 
non slave-holding states. The prosperity of the 
country depends upon its commerce, agriculture, 
and manufactures. Without exports, our commerce 
could not be maintained. If we had nothing to 
sell, we would not have the means of buying; if 
we had no exports, we could have no imports; and 
without either, where would be our commerce? 
Where the employment for our shipping? Where 
the means of subsistence to the millions, who in- 
directly depend upon it? The annual exports of this 
country amount to one hundred millions of dollars. 
These exports bring us an equal amount of im- 
ports. Commerce is thus created; industry, in its 
thousand different branches, employed; the revenue 
of our country paid; and the wants of our thirteen 
millions of people abundantly supplied. Under this 
happy state of things, our country has prospered, 
beyond the most sanguine hopes of the patriot. 
We have become vigorous and opulent. Our towns 
have become great cities; our forests have given 
place to towns; and the vast wilderness, left by our 
fathers, is smiling with a happy and abundant popu- 
lation. These results have been produced by the 
South. The slave- holding states furnish nine- 
tenths of the whole exports of the country, in 
cotton, tobacco, rice, grain, &c. This produce is 
the great fountain of our country's prosperity. U 



284 

is received by the merchants of the North, and 
shipped to Europe; its value in imports is returned, 
and flows, in a thousand channels, back upon the 
people. The South gives employment to our mer- 
chants, our manufacturers, our sailors, our store- 
keepers, and tradesmen. Let the South be cut off*, 
and what will be the consequences to the North? 
We will answer in the language of an able writer 
on this subject — the editor of the Courier and En- 
quirer, of New York. " Our exports and our 
imports tvould be reduced nine-tenths; nine- 
tenths of our shipjnng would be rotting at our 
wharves; nine-tenths of our population now 
supported by commerce and the ivealth it pro- 
duces and the industry it diffuses, would be 
driven to agricultural pursuits; the staple arti- 
cles of Northern */lgriculture command but small 
prices abroad, and they would find but few cus- 
tomers at home; grass would grow in the streets 
of our cities and villages, and a general scene 
of poverty and desolation would folloiv our pre- 
sent unexampled prosperity and generally dif- 
fused wealth.^'' 

In case of separation, the South might raise up a 
commerce, might create and foster manufactures — 
for which her slave-labour is so well adapted; or 
if she failed in this, might, with profit, throw both 
into the lap of England, and tind her sources of 
prosperity undiminished. But the North would be 
unable to supply the loss of the South. How 
would she find employment for her ships, her arti- 
zans, her labourers? How could she maintain her 
business activity, how pay her debts? She could 
not raise cotton or tobacco, and without the re- 
sources of the South, would shrink into poverty. 
Her great cities would be added to Tyre, Venice, 
and other desolate monuments of the fluctuations 



285 

of trade; and her impoverished people would im- 
precate the madness of those who sundered the 
holy tie that knit them to the South. 

But is pecuniary ruin the only, or the worst con- 
sequence of disunion? How is it possible to tear 
asunder the limbs of this confederacy, without con- 
vulsion and bloodshed? Or, if it be possible, how 
long could a good understanding be maintained be- 
tween people so peculiarly situated, and with so 
many causes of difficulty? We cannot pourtray the 
thousand evils, which must flow from the fratrici- 
dal blow that dissevers the Union. It is enough to 
know, that misery and shame must follow it; that 
poverty and want would stalk abroad, and violence 
and crime dog their footsteps; and that civil war, 
to fill the measure of our country's wretchedness, 
would run riot, its tiger tooth dripping with the 
best blood of our land. 

" The picture of the consequences of disunion," 
said the illustrious Madison, "cannot be too highly 
coloured, or too often exhibited. Every man who 
loves peace, every man who loves his country, every 
man who loves liberty, ought to have it ever before 
his eyes, that he may cherish in his heart a due 
attachment to the Union of Jimerica, and he able 
to set a due value on the means of preserving 

it:' 

It is painful to know, that there are men, who re- 
gard the prospect of disunion, without emotion, and 
who are determined to urge their insane projects, 
indifferent what barriers are broken down, what 
altars overthrown, what sacrifices made. To them 
the recollection of our common war of indepen- 
dence, where the North stood breast to breast with 
the South, when they poured out their blood, like 
water, beneath the same proud flag, and in the same 
holy cause — appeals in vain. The glory of the 



286 

past, the hopes of the future, are nothing to them. 
They are willing to see the land of Washington — 
the glory and pride of the earth — shattered, over- 
thrown and trampled in the dust — her past glories 
blotted out — her future hopes forever blasted. To 
such men nothing is sacred. They will follow their 
phantom — rending asunder the holiest ties, and 
bringing shame and ruin upon all that should be 
dear to them. 

Yet they ask credit for their motives! A word 
on this point. It is generally unsafe to judge men's 
motives by any other test than their actions. If a 
man places a torch to a magazine, the explosion of 
which must destroy a city, and tells you, when his 
arm is arrested, that his motives are good — you 
would decide, that the man was either a dangerous 
madman, who should be chained, or a guilty mis- 
creant, who would perpetrate the worst crimes un- 
der the holiest pretences. Men never avow evil 
motives. The vilest felon has recourse to this pal- 
try defence; and the act which cannot borrow so 
poor a gloss, so thin and common a veil, must be 
base and black indeed. Hell itself, the proverb 
tells us, is paved with good intentions. Until we 
find some more satisfactory explanation of the 
course of the abolitionists, we cannot see them busy 
in their work of agitation — 

*' While at their feet, 
Leashed in like hounds, famine, and sword, and fire, 
Crouch for employment," — 

we cannot see them coolly promoting the horrors 
of civil discord, and hold them guiltless on the 
score of pure intentions. Were there room for 
error, they might plead the soundness of their 
motives. But how can they be deceived? They 
have already sown the wind and reaped the whirl- 



287 

wind. Riots and violence in the North, popular 

indignation and servile insurrection at the South 

are the first and only fruits of their efforts. Can 
they point us to any good they have accomplished, 
or can reasonably hope to accomplish? They can- 
not. They shut their eyes to the manifold and 
fearful consequences of their madness, exclaim, 
"we are doing our duty," and rush on in their 
headlong career. And they will continue to rush 
on until arrested by legislative interference; until 
they dash themselves to pieces against the rock of 
our Union; or until they have toppled that Union 
into the dust, and filled this happy country with 
the din, and guilt, and terrors of fratricidal and 
fraternal warfare. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



British Agency in urging Aholition — Motives, 
^"C. — Religious interference — Extent — Nature, 
consequences of clerical influence in the agita- 
tion of this question. 

If the scheme of emancipation were entitled to 
our approbation and support, tlie manner in which 
it is urged, would be sufficient to excite just and 
general suspicion and alarm. A political cause that 
comes before the people, sustained on the one side 
by English influence, and on the other by an aspir- 
ing priesthood — may well be regarded, by republi- 
cans, with distrust and terror. 

It is not difficult to divine the motives which in- 
duce Great Britain to encourage the incendiary ef- 
forts of the abolitionists. They are the same, which 
heretofore, at different periods, in our history, 
prompted the same nation to endeavour to distract 
and destroy our Union, and excite the slaves of the 
South against their masters. Like their own 
wreckers, they are anxious to decoy our vessel upon 
the rocks, that they may be enriched by the spoil 
of the wreck. Our ruined commerce and manufac- 
tures, would affiard Great Britain a new and bound- 
less source of affluence; while the destruction of a 
former foe and a present rival, would be regarded 
with feelings of malicious satisfaction. Many of 
her people also regard the example of republicanism 



289 

in this country, as dangerous to the existing in- 
stitutions of Europe, and would rejoice to see the 
fabric of our Union torn to pieces, and our land 
bleeding and groaning beneath the parricidal arms 
of her own infuriated children. 

Such, we have every reason to believe, are the 
motives that have induced England to send her 
emissaries into this country, to aid the incendiary 
schemes of the emancipationists, to volunteer and 
contribute pecuniary support, in forwarding the 
same cause; and in short, to exercise every means 
in her power, to excite division and insurrection, 
and consummate the infamy of our people, and the 
downfall of our country. It is true, that she avows 
only motives of philanthropy. But why is that 
philanthropy directed hither? Why does it not turn 
to their brethren, the oppressed and starving people 
of Ireland, whose condition is so much worse than 
that of our slaves? Why does it overlook the 
perishing thousands, in the manufactories in Eng- 
land? Why is it not turned to the almost countless 
millions of slaves who groan beneath English 
tyrran}^ in India? Or, if their own brethren, or 
their own victims are beneath their notice, why 
have not the oppressed of their neighbouring king- 
doms of Europe — the serfs of Russia and Poland, 
the slaves of Turkey, and the down-trodden of 
other lands — claimed their attention? England has 
not, hitherto, exhibited such peculiar interest in our 
welfare; and this sudden and singular anxiety can- 
not, under the circumstances, but excite suspicion 
and terror. It remains to be seen, whether British 
money will be allowed openly to circulate, in main- 
taining an opposition to our Union and our Consti- 
tution; and whether English emissaries will be 
permitted to go from state to state, preaching trea- 
son against those sacred rights, which were wrested 
25 



290 

from English tyranny^ and established at the price 
of hundreds of thousands of American lives. 

We have, heretofore, referred to the artful at- 
tempts of the abolitionists, to make emancipation a 
theological question. In this they have succeeded. 
The question of the abolition of slavery, one alto- 
gether political in its nature and bearings, has been 
taken up by a body of clergymen, and is discussed 
and urged by them, through the pulpit and the 
press, as a religious topic. Their conventions have 
been, for the most part, constituted of clergymen. 
The officers of their societies, their agents, emissa- 
ries, and editors are also, generally ministers of the 
gospel. In short, the movement originates in, and 
is sustained and urged by, clerical influence. Many 
of the religious papers of the North have espoused 
the cause; theological institutions have been per- 
verted to the same end, and a large portion of the 
influence of the northern clergy is actively engag- 
ed in the agitation of this distracting political 
topic. 

Every intelligent citizen is aware of the power- 
ful nature of the engine thus employed. When the 
numbers of the northern clergy, or of those engaged 
in preaching abolition, are computed; when their 
moral influence, their resources, their union, their 
perseverance, and experience in the control of the 
human heart, are contemplated — it will be admitted, 
that such a cause, so urged, may well be a subject of 
apprehension. 

The abolition clergy do not merely denounce 
slavery as a sin, and advocate its abolition as a 
Christian duty — but refuse all fellowship with those 
who hold slaves, or sanction domestic slavery. Not 
only all the laity, but all the clergy of the South, 
and a large portion of those of the North — are thus 
denounced; the tie of fellowship is sundered; and 



291 

they are held by the abolitionists, as man-stealers 
and murderers. The follovving extract is from <«a 
picture of slavery'' — a work sold at the office of 
the Anti-Slavery Society. 

" Every slave-holder peremptorily and without 
delay ^ must be excommunicated from the Church 
of God:' 

" It is of no importance, what title, what office, 
what station, or what rank, the slave-holder may 
hold, or what apparent virtues, or talents he may 
possess and develop. To all these specious pleas, 
and to all this anti-christian whitewashing, there is 
a concise, significant, and irrefutable reply: — He is 
a man-stealer. But as a man-stealer is the very 
highest criminal in the judgment of God, and of all 
rational, uncorrupted men, he cannot be a Christian; 
and therefore it is an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the head of the Church, to record the most notori- 
ous criminal as an acceptable member of the ' house- 
hold of faith.' * * * There must be a beginning, 
and to the Christians of New England especially, 
to the descendants of the puritan pilgrims, is re- 
served the honour of commencing upon a large 
arena, and of effectually carrying on the warfare 
which shall expel man-stealing from all cormection 
with American Churches. However plausible may 
be the pretexts, and however ingenious and urgent 
may be the excuses, they must categorically de- 
nounce the profession of Christianity in alliance 
with slave-holding, as pestiferous hypocrisy. They 
must sternly prohibit all slave-driving preachers 
from officiating in the sanctuary, or leading in any 
devotional exercises." 

" Thus the Northern and Eastern Christians must 
unsparingly act. They must eject every man-stealer, 
without exception, from ' the communion of Saints/ 
instantly and forever." 



292 

We cannot pause to estimate the power of this 
combination of the priesthood, or the dangers 
which are to be apprehended to the liberties of the 
country, from their systematic agitation of political 
questions. Every one who has opened the pages 
which record the history of the past, must know 
the consequences which have ever flowed from the 
political policy of the priesthood. He must know 
that the most sanguinary and dreadful of those in- 
numerable wars, which have, in different ages deso- 
lated the earth, have been kindled by the breath of 
fanaticism; and that even the religion of peace, has 
been perverted, by the ambition or bigotry of 
priests, into the cause of the slaughter of millions. 
Religious interference has, in all cases, been attend- 
ed with violence; religious domination, in all cases, 
followed by political despotism, popular degrada- 
tion, and national decay. So effective an agent is 
fanaticism, in the agitation or control of the popular 
mind, that the mask of religious fervour has been 
frequently worn to cover the dark and blood-spot- 
ted brow of guilty ambition, of deep and insatiate 
love of power. It would have been strange, had 
the abolitionists overlooked such an engine — such a 
mask. It is a weapon peculiarly appropriate for 
their cause. It accords admirably with the sleek 
dissimulation, the canting affectation of superior 
excellence, and the reckless disregard of the lives 
and happiness of others, which characterize that 
faction. The subject of abolition is, therefore, 
argued wholly on religious grounds. The Consti- 
tution is arrayed against the Bible; and the South 
is denounced as a moral " Sodom." Whatever sub- 
ject may be discussed, their arguments are still 
directed to the fanatical; even declamation assumes 
the whining tone of cant; and all their efforts be- 
tray the same determination to urge abolition, not 



293 

as a grand political question, to be argued on political 
grounds, but as a theological point, to be discussed 
with nasal intonation and hypocritical slang, and to 
be decided by a faction of presumptuous priests, and 
the old women, male and female, whose political 
opinions and feelings are in their holy keeping. 

This fanaticism is equally dangerous, whether 
affected or sincere, but not equally revolting. That 
it is, with the leaders at least, counterfeit, is demon- 
strated by the fact that, among the most vociferous 
of the preachers of abolition, are men, whose lives 
constitute but a halting commentary on their doc- 
trines. How heartless must be the impiety of the 
man, who can use the gospel of peace to forward a 
plot that must move, if at all, axle deep in blood! 

«*No sound,'" says the immortal Burke, '' shou-ld 
be heard in the church but the healing voice of 
Christian charity. Those who quit their proper 
character, to assume what does not belong to them, 
are for the most part ignorant of the character 
they assume, and of the character they leave off! 
Wholly unacquainted with the world in lohich 
they are so fond of meddling, and inexperienced 
in all its affairs, on which they pronounce with 
so much confidence, they have nothing of politics 
but the PASSIONS they excite. Surely the church is 
a place, where one day's truce ought to be allowed 
to the dissensions and animosities of mankind." 

The men who renounce all Christian fellowship 
with one half of the members of the American 
Church, for maintaining, as Christ himself did, the 
existing institutions of the country, can scarcely 
expect that their course of treason, incendiarism 
and violence, will be regarded in a more charitable 
spirit. But we are willing, even by a violation of 
probability, to suppose that, at least some of these 
bigots have reall j at heart the advancement of the 



294 

cause of religion; and will ask them, if they can 
deceive themselves into a belief that the course 
which they have adopted, is calculated to promote 
that cause. Do they not know that it must divide 
the Christian church into two bodies, those approv- 
ing, and those opposing, the legal institutions of the 
South; that these parties must regard each other 
with feelings of no Christian character; and that 
the house, thus divided against itself, is in danger of 
falling? Are they not aware, that by thus interfer- 
ing with the politics of the country, they not only 
expose themselves to dangerous political errors 
from tlieir ignorance and inexperience, but that 
they are exciting against themselves and against the 
clergy in general, a wide-spread and popular feel- 
ing of distrust, suspicion, prejudice, and aversion? 
Do they not know that they, by their present 
course, assume the awful responsibility of endan- 
gering the cause of religion itself; of exciting even 
against its holy and beneficent influence, that preju- 
dice which is and must be attached to an intermed- 
dling, ambitious, and selfish priesthood, whatever 
political course they may pursue; and which, when 
that course endangers the rights of the people, and 
the honour and union of the country, cannot but be 
intense and general? How can they answer these 
questions to themselves? How can they answer them 
to the great Master, whose holy name they have thus 
abused — whose holy cause they have thus betrayed 
and injured? The prudent, the pious will shrink 
and tremble, before they incur a i*esponsibility so 
fearful. They will hesitate before they throw by 
the shepherd's crook, to grasp the weapon which 
must be reddened in the blood of our brethren; and 
ponder deeply and solemnly, before they sanction 
those who thus dangerously pervert the religion of 
Him who came into the world " not to destroy, but 
to fulfil/' 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Mility of the South to hold its Slaves — Increase 
of Slaves — Slaves contented — Impossihilily of 
successful insurrection — Security of the South, 
Sf^c. Sf^c. 

In extenuation of their lawless encroachments on 
the rights of the South, the abolitionists plead the 
great dangers which must arise from the existence 
of slavery. This danger, if it exists at all, menaces 
only the inhabitants of the South. Now they are 
neither destitute of mental nor physical resources 
to foresee or meet the alleged danger. They are 
fully capable of the task of caring for themselves; 
and the thankless interference of the abolitionists is 
equally ill-timed, pragmatical, and unnecessary. The 
South wants no protection, and, least of all, the pro- 
tection of the abolitionists. Their charity is alto- 
gether obtrusive; and it would be well if, in their 
discursive and knight-errant benevolence, they would 
seek other subjects for the exercise of their virtues. 

These raven counsellors calculate the increase of 
the slaves, and come to the conclusion that they are 
gaining gradually upon the whites; that their power 
will be thus regularly increased, until at length, in 
future times, they may outnumber the whites, and 
fall upon and massacre them. They, therefore, ap- 
pear to think that it is more j^rudent that the slaves 
should be excited to this massacre at once; that the 
" question should be met,'' and that the throats des- 



296 

tined to be cut should be operated upon without any- 
unnecessary delay. 

These views are, at least, in character with the 
abolitionists. But we would suggest to them the 
propriety of allowing posterity to take care of itself. 
We have quite as much on our hands as we can 
manage properly; and as posterity will be, in all 
probability, quite as wise and capable as we are, it 
may be well to direct our time and attention to the 
care of those more immediately within the scope of 
our sympathies and duty. 

Cool-headed and reflecting men cannot but regard 
the ill-omened predictions of the abolitionists, on 
this head, with scorn. Slavery has existed thus far 
without any of the unfavourable results which ter- 
rify these nervous patriots. Every age has had its 
croakers, men who see visions, and dream dreams; 
who foresee for futurity evils and calamities which 
futurity never realizes, and which only serve to ex- 
cite the imaginations of those who can be terrified 
by the phantoms thus idly conjured up. We liave 
no right to expect an exemption from these prophets 
of evil. Their raven voices will be heard even un- 
der the brightest sky; and, though time may venture 
to belie their predictions, nothing will quiet their 
croaking. It may be well, however, to examine the 
basis of their apprehensions. 

In answer to the oft-repeated objection, that the 
increase of the slaves of this country is proportion- 
ally greater than that of the whites, we venture to 
oppose a direct denial of the statement. The follow- 
ing extract from Mr. Walsh will correct all errors 
on this point. " Our census of 1810 teaches that, 
according to the ratio of increase for the twenty 
years preceding, the number of years required for 
the duplication of the whites was 22.48; and that re- 
quired for the slaves, as I have mentioned, 25.99. 



297 

The whites increased from 1790 to 1810, 85.26 per 
cent; the slaves 70.75. The mere natural increase 
is not, however, shown exactly by this calculation. 
We should deduct the annual addition made to the 
numbers of both from without, which would proba- 
bly leave the proportion the same. The whole num- 
ber of slaves in 1810 was 1,191,364; and of free 
people of colour, 186,466. Together they did not 
equal one fourth of the white population, which was 
5,862,092; nor make but little more than one sixth 
of the whole. At present, (1819,) the proportion 
must be still less, as the ratio of increase for the 
white population is undoubtedly greater." The 
views of Mr. Walsh have been confirmed by subse- 
quent experience; and the fears of those who dwell, 
with trembling emphasis, upon the increase of the 
slaves, demonstrated to be groundless and idle.* 

* " We have no fears on this score; even if it were true, 
the danger would not be very great. With the increase of 
the blacks, we can afford to enlarge the police; and we will 
venture to say, that with the hundredth man at our disposal, 
and faithful to us, we would keep down insurrection in any 
large country on the face of the globe. But the speakers in 
the Virginia legislature, in our humble opinion, made most 
unwarrantable inferences from the census returns. They took 
a period between 1790 and 1830, and judged exclusively from 
the aggregate results of that whole time. Mr. Brown pointed 
out their fallacy, ;ind shovi^ed that there was but a small por- 
tion of the period in which the blacks had rapidly gained 
on the whites (in Virginia,) but during the residue they 
were most rapidly losing their high relative increase, and 
would, perhaps in 1840, exhibit an augmentation less than 
the whites. But let us go a little back. In 1740, the slaves 
in South Carolina, says Marshall, were three times the whites: 
the danger from them was greater then than it ever has been 
since, or ever will be again. There was an insurrection in 
that year, which was put down with the utmost ease, although 
instigated and aided by the Spaniards. The slaves in Vir- 
ginia, at the same period, were much more numerous than 
the whites. Now suppose some of those peepers into futu- 



298 

The progressive increase of the two races has 
been referred to as a source of danger. If the whites 
increase, the blacks also multiply, and will in time, 
it is urged, constitute so large a mass, that it will be 
impossible to hold them in subjection. The facts 
do not bear out the theory. A million can more 
easily hold a million in subjection, than a thousand 
can a thousand. The reason is obvious — concert 
and union are required to overturn an established 
government; and the greater the number, the more 
difficult is this of attainment. In a community of 
one hundred, a police of one man would be wholly 
incapable of controlling the ninety-nine; but in a 
community of one million, a band of ten thousand 
troops would be found amply sufficient for that pur- 
pose. 

No one, who has examined this subject dispas- 
sionately, can entertain any serious doubts of the 
ability of the whites of the South to hold their 
slaves in subjection. There has been no instance 
of a successful insurrection of negro slaves. Even 
at St. Domingo, the revolt commenced with the free 
mulattoes, who had been educated and disciplined 
in France; who were nearly equal in number to the 
whites; and who were encouraged by the French go- 
vernment; and, notwithstanding all this, it would 

rity could have been present; would they not have predicted 
the speedy arrival of the time when the blacks, rnnning" 
ahead of the whites in numbers, would have destroyed their 
security? In 1763, the black population of Virginia was 
100,000, and the white 70,000. In South Carolina the blacks 
were 90,000, and the whites 40,000. Comparing them with 
the returns of 1740, our prophets, could they have lived so 
long, might have found some consolation in the greater in- 
crease of the whites. Again, when we see in 1830, that the 
blacks in both states have fallen in numbers below the whites, 
our prophets, were they alive, might truly be pronounced 
false."«-^jPro/ewor Dew, 



299 



never have succeeded had not the island been in a state 
of revolution, and distracted by a civil contest t 
Jamaica where the blacks are eight-fold the whites 
and in Brazil, where they are three to one thev 
have been controlled and held in bondage without 

ferTor" /• \ "'^ '^'^i'""-^' "^<= '""^'^ population,^n- 
ferior in numbers and milder in temper, has never 
given any trouble; and never will, unless poCed 
and maddened by foreign abolitionists. , P"'"""^" 
Ihe security of the whites may be ascribed to 
several causes. Among the first, is the moral supe- 
riority of the master over the slave. This upe- 
rionty consists ma greater natural elevation of cha- 
racter, in the eelings which arise from a habit of 
command, and in the firmness and courage which 
are produced by freedom. The slave, besoUed, ser- 
vile, accustomed to degradation, an<l habituated to 
regard his master with deference and awe, does not 
presume to dream of contending with him His 
genius stands rebuked before that of the white man 
He has neither the aspirations, the spirit, nor the 
ability which would urge him into determined oppo- 

<; tT k .? 'Sr"''l ^ '^'"^ ^^"'''■•' ^he author of 
"The bouth-West, by a Yankee," alleges, that the 
South has little to appreliend from her%lave popu! 

a ion; and asserts that "the negro is wholly desti- 
tute of courage. He possesses an animal instinct, 
which impels him, when roused, to the performance 
of the most savage acts. He is a being of impulse 
and cowardice is a principle of his soul, as instinc- 
tive as courage in the white man. This may be caused 
by their condition, and without doubt it is But 
whatever may be the cause, the effect exists, and 
will ever preclude any apprehensions of serious evil 

rom any insurrectionary combination of their num- 
ber. The spirit of insubordination will die as soon 
as the momentary excitement which produced it has 



300 

subsided; and negroes never can accomplish anything 
of a tragic nature, unless under the influence of extra- 
ordinary temporary excitement. The negro has a 
habitual fear of the white man, which has become 
a second nature; and this, combined with the fear- 
less contempt of the white man for him, in his bel- 
ligerent attitude, will operate to prevent any very 
serious evil resulting from their plans. A northerner 
looks upon a band of negroes, as upon so many 7nen\ 
but the planter, or southerner, views them in a very 
difierent light; and, armed only with a hunting whip 
or walking cane, he will fearlessly throw himself 
among a score of them, armed as they may be, and 
they will instantly flee with terror." This supe- 
riority of the white man, and the deference and de- 
pendence of the slaves, preclude even the disposition 
to insurrection. It renders the domination of the 
master sovereign and complete, and prevents the 
first movements of rebellion; or enables him to 
crush it without difficulty at any subsequent stage. 

But it is not merely the superiority of the master 
in his towering, fearless, and commanding spirit, 
which oversways the negro; the intelligence and 
skill of the whites render that superiority still 
greater. The white man has all the advantages of 
science; he possesses, in superior intelligence, the 
means not only of protecting himself, but of con- 
trolling his slaves. The negro regards him not 
only as his protector, and the provider of his daily 
bread, but as the possessor of the mysterious and 
awful power conferred by education. He regards 
his superiority with deference, and well he may; 
for the ignorance and simplicity of the negro, op- 
posed to the sagacity and intelligence of the white 
man, would have but little chance of success. 
Should the negroes, by accident, attain a partial ad- 
vantage and be enabled to oppose the whites, their 



301 

ignorance, want of discipline, and confidence would 
make them an easy prey to the discipline and skill 
01 tiieir masters. 

The blacks from their position can never effect 
organization. The police of the South effectually 
prevents ,t; and even should that police be relaxed, 
or withdrawn, the ignorance and stupidity of the 
blacks would preclude the possibility of extensive 
and efiective combination. Even in case of suc- 
cessful insurrection, the ignorant and savage mob 
collected together, could never be formed into a 
regular or united mass. The whites, on the con- 
tmry, have all the advantages afforded by an 
efiective code noir, carefully administered, of 
vigorous organization by government, and of every 
thing necessary to secure prompt and irresistible 
combination and exertion of the organized energies 
of the white population. 

The blacks, it must also be remembered, would 
be, in case of insurrection, without any of the re- 
sources necessary for effectual resistance. Destitute 
of arms and ammunition, probably without food 
and certainly without discipline— they might deso- 
late a hamlet, but could never endanger a stete. 

^ It is impossible to contemplate the character, con- 
dition, and resources of the two races in the South 
and believe that any serious difficulty can arise 
from the slaves. 'J'he superiority of the whites 
in all that constitutes power, the effective police 
adopted, and the character and position of the 
slaves, render it morally impossible, that the safety 
and tranquillity of the South can be disturbed by 
negro insurrection. 

But were the resources of the blacks adequate to 

successful insurrection, they would not, unless 

tainted by the incendiaries, desire a change in their 

condition; they could not be persuaded to raise 

26 



302 

their hands against their masters. The following 
remarks of Mr. Dew, on this subject, deserve atten- 
tion. " It seems to us that those who insist upon 
it, commit the enormous error of looking upon 
every slave in the slave-holding country, as actuated 
by the most deadly enmity to the whites, and pos- 
sessing all that reckless, fiendish temper, which 
would lead him to murder, and assassinate, the mo- 
ment the opportunity occurs. This is far from be- 
ing true. The slave, as we have already said, gene- 
rally loves the master and his family : aye, and few 
indeed there are, who can coldly plot the murder 
of men, women, and children; and if they do, 
there are fewer still who can have the villany to 
execute. We can sit down and imagine, that all the 
negroes in the South have conspired to rise on a 
certain night, and murder all the whites in their 
respective families; we may suppose the secret to 
be kept, and that they have the physical power to ex- 
terminate; and yet, we say, the whole is morally im- 
possible. No insurrection of this kind, has occurred 
where the blacks are as much civilized as they are in 
the United States. Savages and Koromantyn slaves 
can commit such deeds, because their whole life and 
education have prepared them; and they glory in 
the achievment; but the negro of the United States 
has imbibed the principles, the sentiments, and the 
feelings of the white; in one word, he is civilized — 
at least, comparatively; his whole education, and 
course of life, are at war with such fell deeds. No- 
thing, then, but the most subtle and poisonous prin- 
ciples, sedulously infused into his mind, can break 
his allegiance, and transform him into the midnight 
murderer. Any man who will attend to the his- 
tory of the Southampton massacre, must at once 
see, that the cause of even the partial success of 
the insurrectionists, was the very circumstance that 



303 

there was no extensive plot, and that Nat, a dement- 
ed fanatic, was under the impression that heaven 
had enjoined him to liberate the blacks, and had 
made its manifestations by loud noises in the air, an 
eclipse, and by the greenness of the sun. It was 
these signs which determined him^ and ignorance 
and superstition, together with implicit confidence 
in Nat, determined a few others; and thus the 
bloody work began. So fearfully and reluctantly 
did they proceed to the execution, that we have no 
doubt that if Travis, the first attacked, could have 
waked whilst they were getting into his house, or 
could have shot down Nat or Will, the rest would 
have fled, and the affair would have terminated in 

* So far are the negroes from cherishing any desire to ef- 
fect their freedom by force, that the virtuous among them 
regard it as disgraceful to run away. The following anec- 
dotes from "The South-West, by a Yankee," illustrate this 
feeling. 

"I was sitting, not long since, in the portico of a house in 
the country, engaged in conversation, when an old negro 
entered the front gate, leading by the arm a negro boy, about 
sixteen years of age. "Ah !" said the gentleman with whom 
I was talking, "There is my runaway !" The old man ap- 
proached the steps, which led to the portico, and removing 
his hat, as usual with slaves on addressing a white person, 
said, " Master, I done bring John home. I cotch him 
skulkin' 'bout in Natchey ; I wish master sell him, where 
ol' nigger nebber see him more, if he run away 'gain ; he 
disgrace he family : his ol' mammy cry 'nough 'bout it when 
she hearn it." This couple were father and son. A "good 
negro" in the usual acceptation of the term, feels that there 
is a kind of disgrace attached to himself and family, if any 
one of them becomes a runaway. A negro lad, who had 
absconded for a few days' play, was apprehended, and led by 
his overseer, through the streets on his way home, not long 
ago, when an old negro washwoman standing by, exclaimed, 
seeing him, "La, me! who tink he 'gin so young to act 
bad." I will relate an instance of their readiness to ar- 



304 

The following extract from the speech of Dr. 
Burden, speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate, in the 
debate on the Tariff, in January, 1S33, gives the 
same view of the slave population of the South. 

" The feelings of the Southern slave towards his 
master are but little understood in the North. Born 
and brought up in a family, he has no affections be- 
yond it. He eats his master's food and is his mas- 
ter's friend; in sickness or decrepitude he is sus- 
tained and comforted; and when his days are 
drawing to a close, he finds in his master a friend 
and protector, without resorting to the tender vier- 
cies of an alms-house. Slavery is abhorrent to 
us all; 3^et in the fearful event of a civil war, the 
slave of South Carolina ivould be trusted with 
arms, and found, as on a former occasion, by 
the side of his master.''^ 

It is true, that the people of the North are unable 
to conceive the feeling which subsists between the 
master and the slave, the protector and the protect- 
ed. The negro is a child in his nature, and the 
white man is to him as a father. The slave, it is 
true, regards him with awe, but that awe is mingled 
with affection. He shares in his master's pride, 
partakes in his prosperity, and feels, with sensibility, 
his reverses, his sufferings, or his death. The work 
already quoted gives the following account of a 
slave-holder's funeral. 

rest each other. " Missus, deres a runaway back de gar- 
den," said hastily a young negress, as a party were sitting 
down to the tea table of a lady at whose house I was visit- 
ing. "Let me go catch hinn." " Let me go missus," said 
the \yaiters, and they could hardly be kept in ihe hall. Per- 
mission was given to one to go, who in a few minutes re- 
turned, leading up to the hall-door, a stout half-naked negro, 
whom he had caught prowling about the premises. " Here 
de nigger, missus," said he exultingly, as though he him- 
self belonged to another race and colour," 



305 

"An irregular procession, or rather crowd of 
slaves in the rear of all, followed, with sorrowful 
countenances, the ren'iains of their master, to his 
last, long home. When the heavy clods rattled 
upon the hollow sounding coffin, these poor 
wretches, who had anxiously crowded around the 
grave, burst into one simultaneous flood of tears, 
mingled with expressions of regret, sorrow, and af- 
fection. A group of slaves lamenting over the 
grave of their master!" The author of the work 
quoted says, " I am myself in favour of emancipa- 
tion;" the fidelity of the statem.ent cannot there- 
fore be doubted. Can any one possessed of reason, 
suppose that the masters, thus beloved while living, 
and regretted when dead, by their slaves, are in 
danger from those slaves? If the slaves had all the 
power, they have not the disposition, to unsheath 
the knife against the breasts of their masters. That 
disposition is cherished only in the bosoms of the 
religious philanthropists of the North! 

But, it will be asked, what will become of the 
South, should the abolitionists succeed in poisoning 
the minds of the slaves against their masters, and 
should the efforts of the negroes against the whites 
be aided by foreign powers? If such events were 
possible, the results would be what we have, in a 
former chapter described; but such a state of things 
is not possible. It is not possible, that the South 
will be so inert, so tame, so insensible to the dan- 
gers of her situation, as to allow the abolitionists of 
the North to tamper with her slaves. She WILL 
prevent it, at whatever sacrifice; and those who think 
otherwise deceive themselves. The slaves will re- 
main what they now are; and should the South be 
assailed by a foreign power, her slaves will be her 
safety, her defence. As a labouring population, 
they would furnish the supplies necessary for such a 
26* 



306 

contest; as a portion of the wealth of the land they, 
would constitute " the sinews of war" — or should 
men be wanted, they would fight by the side of 
their masters. But all these speculations are idle 
and ill-omened. What nation on the face of the 
earth, bearing a Christian name, and ranking among 
civilized communities, would thus assail the South? 
What nation would thus violate every law by which 
the civilized world is ruled, outrage every feeling 
of humanity, and seek to bring upon both races at 
the South, wanton and sanguinary destruction, 
without interest, or motive? Would the states of 
the North adopt so inhuman and savage a policy? 
Would the nations of Europe? The supposition is 
gratuitous and far beyond the limit of possibility. 
It would be a singular instance of national weak- 
ness and folly, if the predictions of the abolitionists 
should succeed in frightening the people of this 
country, into a support of their views. Such ap- 
peals constitute one of the oldest and most effective 
arts of political quacks. Nations have been appal- 
led by an eclipse; and empires shaken by an astro- 
nomical prediction. We are told that the solar 
system contains in itself the laws of its eventual 
destruction; that the planets are gradually drawn 
to the centre, and must at last shoot li-om their 
spheres to the sun, and make one massive central 
ruin of the system, which now moves in brightness 
and beauty around us. The dangers foretold by the 
abolitionists are of a similar character — equally ter- 
rible — and equally remote. He who can be shaken 
by such predictions is unfit to deliberate on the con- 
cerns of a rational people. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Course of the South vindicated— Duty of Con- 
gress—Post Office— Duty of ^orttlern States 
— Freedom of the Press— Conclusion. 

We have shown, it is hoped satisfactorilj^, that 
the fears entertained of the safety of the South are 
groundless; that tlie slaves have neither the disposi- 
tion nor the power to rise against their masters; and 
that, neither now nor hereafter, are thej^ likely to 
become a source of danger, or well founded appre- 
hension. 

The only danger which is to be apprehended, is 
from the agitation of this subject by the people of 
the North. The abolitionists may create danger to 
the slave and the master, to the North and the South. 
We have already shown that the paucity of their 
numbers, were they few, or their want of power, 
were they weak, does not prevent them from being 
extensively mischievous. Hitherto, it is hoped, 
their efforts among the slaves have been attended 
with no extended consequences dangerous to the 
South; but their agitation has, in its effects upon 
the sentiments and temper of our people, produced 
results which cannot be mistaken. The South is 
alarmed and excited. Throughout the whole of the 
slave-holding sections of our country, there prevails 
a conviction of great danger arising from the agita^ 
ting measures of the abolitionists, and a stern deter- 
mination to avert that danger, at whatever sacrifice. 



308 

In many cases, the sense of undeserved injury- 
has excited intense and violent feelings of resent- 
ment. Those feelings have been freely expressed. 
Can it excite surprise, or justify censure, that the 
people of the South, smarting under their wrongs, 
express in terms of indignation, the sentiments which 
every manly heart must cherish? Or is it expected 
that the southron will see his rights violated, and 
the lives and honour of his wife and daughters en- 
dangered, and feel no throb of resentment — or that, 
feeling it, he will express his sense of the wrong in 
terms of meek regret and honied endearment? The 
South is wronged — deeply and dangerously wronged: 
she will not submit to that wrong: and it would be hy- 
pocrisy as well as weakness, to suppress her feelings, 
or conceal her determination. She must defend her- 
self, or perish. Those who trample upon her have 
no right to complain that her remonstrances are not 
made in the whining and craven tones of supplication. 
Her very existence is endangered; and when she 
says that she will not allow her domestic institutions 
to be insidiously assailed, or her slaves tampered 
with, she means it. Those, whose incendiary mea- 
sures excite these feelings at the South, have but 
little reason to complain (^i Wio. fashion of her speech. 

It has been complained, also, that the citizens of 
the South have punished such incendiaries as have 
been detected in exciting the slaves to mutiny, in 
an extrajudicial manner. It is true that, when mis- 
creants have been found engaged in the fiend-like 
task of persuading the slaves to murder the whites, 
they have been tried before tribunals which, though 
constituted with great care, and composed of the 
best citizens, have not been directly authorised by 
law. But who dares say that such tribunals have, 
in a single instance, exercised the powers conferred 
upon them unjustly or improperly? 



309 

It is somewhat singular, that certain northern 
presses should have espoused, with such zeal, the 
cause of these hlood-stained preachers of negro in- 
surrection. It miglU he thought, that the fate of 
such wretches would have excited but little sympa- 
thy with the virtuous; and that the patriot would 
rather rejoice, than lamoit, that the knife which had 
been whetted for an indiscriminate slaughter of the 
whites of the South, had been directed, b}^ the hand 
of justice, to the bosoms which gave birth to the 
bloody scheme. 

The course of the people of Mississijipi in the 
late insurrection was wise and just. The danger 
was of so imminent a character as to throw back the 
people upon the hrst law of nature, for their protec- 
tion. The crisis was revolutionary, and the remedy 
adopted was necessarily above the law. Is it to be 
expected that, in such an emergenc}^, the people 
will fold their arms and quietl}' wait for the knife 
of the negro, because the existing regulations do not 
furnish adequate means of defence? The idea is too 
absurd to be entertained for a moment. But the 
course pursued, in tlie case referred to, was not only 
fully justified by extreme and imperative necessity, 
but also was sanctioned by the highest authority 
known to tlie state — Iho. entire mass of the citizens. 
The laws under which the incendiaries were appre- 
hended and executed, and the insurrection sup- 
pressed, were dictated b}^ supreme necessitj^, and 
were enacted by the people — not through the regu- 
lar organs — no time was afforded for that — but by 
the people themselves, directly and unanimously. 
If they did wrong, they are responsible to them.selves 
alone. We have nothing to do with it. It may be, 
and has been said, that the precedent is dangerous. 
We think otherwise. The people always have, and 
always will, under like dangers, adopt a like course. 



310 

When the emergency requires it, the precedent is 
safe; when it does not, the precedent does not apply. 

In the crisis which has fallen upon our country, 
it becomes every patriot to enquire what is to be 
done? The danger is general; and the efforts to 
arrest the evil should be equally so. 

Congress, in this emergency, should prove itself 
worthy to guard the rights of a free people. It 
should not only reject, with disdain, every petition 
which the abolitionists may presume to send to that 
body — it should not only avoid, as fatal, every act 
which may involve the agitation of the subject — but 
it should adopt stern and efficient measures to pre- 
vent any department of the general government from 
being made an incendiary engine in the hands of the 
fanatics. Such regulations should be at once adopt- 
ed as will rescue the post office, from the abolition- 
ists. The patriotic recommendation of the president 
in his late message will, it is hoped, meet the con- 
currence and support of all parties in Congress. We 
are aware that it objected that any corrective applied 
to the evil would subject the mail to the abuses of 
power. Power, however wholesome and necessary, 
is liable to abuse; and it would be folly to hesitate 
in removing a great and imminent danger, in the 
apprehension of incurring a slight and remote one. 
If, however, the general government should fail to 
make such provisions as are obviously required to 
check the influx of incendiary publications on the 
South through the medium of the post office, the 
southern states may, and no doubt will, in the exer- 
cise of their unquestioned rights, adopt efficient mea- 
sures to check the evil. But even without further 
enactments, either by the general government or 
the states, the post officers, in the performance of 
their duties, should, and no doubt will, eject incen- 
diary matter from their mails. That they are legally 



311 

justified in so doing, we entertain not a doubt; and, 
certain it is, that the intelligence and patriotism of 
the country have fully sustained the course hereto- 
fore adopted by the ])ost office department. 

The non-slaveholding states owe it to the Union, 
to the South, to themselves, and to the cause of peace 
and order, to adopt efficient measures to check the 
madness of the incendiaries. The offenders are citi- 
zens of the northern states; their dangerous publica- 
tions are here prepared, and sent through the South; 
while they themselves, screened by our law, pro- 
ceed in their work of treason in safety. It becomes 
the duty of the northern states, to pass such enact- 
ments as will effectually prevent their citizens from 
endangering the peace of the southern states, by ex- 
citing their slaves to insurrection. 

Whenever such measures have been suggested, 
the abolitionists and their apologists have raised a 
clamour about the freedom of the press. This is 
one of those empty and unmeaning war cries, 
which are raised upon every occasion. Such a 
question should be decided, not by artful appeals to 
popular axioms, the emptiest of which reverb the 
loudest, but by cool and manly argument. 

The liberty of the press is in no danger. Those 
who recommend effective measures against the abo- 
litionists, are the most devoted friends of the true 
liberty of the press. The press may be regulated 
without being fettered. It is now restrained by 
wholesome laws; does any one feel or regret the 
loss of so much of its liberty? Not only the press, 
but every thing, and every body, are under certain 
restraints, in all civilized communities. Men can- 
not speak, write, nor act, in such manner as to en- 
danger the moral well-being of society, without 
incurring the penalties of the violated law. 

The liberty of the press may be abused; and 



312 

these abuses should be checked. The press that 
would advocate open hiimorality, that would espouse 
the cause of the enemy in a dangerous war, that 
would become the organ and signal of the thieves 
of our different cities, ought to be, and would be 
stopped. The press that endeavours to fill the 
South with insurrection and bloodslied, is equally 
dangerous; and should also be subjected, by the 
communit}^ in which it is issued, to the penalty of 
such laws as the evil requires. 

The dangers which some affect to apprehend to 
the liberty of the press, are of the most insubstan- 
tial nature. How could such laws endanger the 
real, useful freedom of the press? Does the liberty 
of the countr}^ depend upon the success of the in- 
cendiaries in exciting servile sedition; or is the 
mad raving of the flmatics of such peculiar value, 
that its non-continuance will involve the downfall 
of the country? The Southern press is now, and 
long has been, under the restraints which are re- 
commended here for the behoof of the abolitionists; 
yet we presume, that it will not be pretended that 
it is less free and fearless, less able and effective 
in political discussion, than that of the North. The 
same measures would be attended here with the 
same results. 

It must not be supposed, that the South requires 
from the North more than is necessary for her 
tranquillity. The right of discussion, the invaluable 
privilege of talking of the concerns of others, may be 
retained in full force and virtue by the abolitionists; 
it is only required, that they should not flood the 
South with appeals calculated to endanger its tran- 
quillity. Their own rights are not assailed; they 
are only asked to respect the rights of others. 

Some of the Northern presses say, and say truly, 
that they have " a right to discuss what they please, 



313 

and as they please." It is not denied that, under 
existing enactments, it would be found difficult to 
bring them to punishment for exciting insurrection 
among the slaves. But if they have a right to act 
towards the South as foes, has it not occurred to 
them, that the South has a right to regard them in 
the same light, and to secede from a union with 
those who boast their right to be their worst ene- 
mies? The exercise of rights of so unfraternal a 
character, will scarcely advance the interests of an)?" 
section of our country. 

If the Northern states were not knit to the South 
by the bonds of one happy union, but were foreign 
and friendly powers, they would be forced by the 
law of nations to suppress the hostile movements 
of the incendiaries. Are they willing to make the 
union a defence and justification of wrong? Are 
they prepared to deny that to their brethren, which 
they could not withhold from strangers? 

The North is pledged to observe the rights of 
the South. It is expected that she will avoid an 
infraction of those rights, not nominally and in ap- 
pearance alone, but really and in fact. This cannot 
be said to be the case, when she allows her citizens 
to prosecute a continued and systematic warfare, and 
refuses to adopt the measures necessary to suppress 
them. While she thus virtually violates the com- 
mon compact — how can she consider it binding on 
others? How can she expect the South to remain 
quiescent under acts of systematic hostility? It is 
of no consequence that the blow which is aimed at 
the South, is to be inflicted by the arm of a brother. 
From whatever quarter it may come, it is equally 
unfriendly and equally dangerous; and the South 
will be constrained at least to ward it off, whatever 
may be the consequence of her measures of de- 
fence. 

27 



314 

That the policy of the abolitionivSts has produced, 
c.nd is producing, consequences which involve the 
integrity of the Union, and the peace, and welfare 
of the country, can no longer be doubted. The 
occurrences and disclosures of the last twelve 
months, cannot but awaken, in every honest bosom, 
the most serious reflections. The conscientious 
abolitionists, if such there be, will pause to re- 
examine a cause thus pregnant with violence and 
peril; while the friends of Union, of freedom, of 
the country, whatever their creed or party, whether 
of the North or the South, will hasten, by energetic 
and effective measures, to prostrate forever, the 
treasonable conspiracy which menaces the existence 
of our country, and the peace and safety of our 
people. 



FINIS. 



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